Live from the Nuke Free Zone

Shame on Michael Schiavo for starting a family with another woman
while still legally married to Terri. Shame on the Schindlers for lying
about Terri’s
condition and Michael’s treatment of her. Shame on the quacks giving false hope to a family in distress. Shame on the
right-wing
groups soliciting donations for themselves by falsely implying
the money will go to Terri’s care and the Schindler’s legal funds.

Shame on the protesters monkeying the actions of Berkeley free-speech
protestors by
taping over their mouths as if their free speech were being trampled
on when most TV news is dedicated to telling their side of the story.
Shame on them further for
having their children arrested for another photo-op.
If the Berkeleyites did that, they’d risk losing custody.

Shame on George W. Bush for deciding that this, above all else that
has happened during his term, was a reason to cut short one of his many
long vacations and fly back to Washington from his Texas estate. “Osama
bin Laden determined to strike inside the US”? That couldn’t get him
off his duff. Genocide in Sudan killing hundreds of thousands? It doesn’t seem
to be on his radar. US losing the Iraq war? Forget about turning the tide,
he doesn’t even want to hear about it. However, when a brain-dead woman
with no chance of recovery might be allowed to die in accordance with
her wishes earlier expressed to her husband, Bush rushes like a whirlwind
back to DC to have his picture taken in his pajamas as he declares
his newfound opposition to the traditional definition of marriage.

Shame on the Republican Congress for politicizing the issue in the same
manner. These “pro-life” politicians are the same ones who favored an
immediate war, killing tens of thousands, over a scheduled second round
of UN inspections to discover that Iraq didn’t have any CBN programs
and had gotten rid of its stockpiles. They’re the same ones who support
torturing to death as many prisoners of war as the North
Vietnamese did in one seventh of the time.
They are the same politicians who not only tolerate but
promote
the death penalty.
As for the President, he laughed about sending a born-again
Christian woman to her death and proudly proclaimed
“we will export
death and violence to the four corners of the Earth”.
That’s how pro-life these guys really are. All this outrage from Washington?
It’s a sham.

Shame on the media for making this personal story front-page news,
even before the separation of powers and states’ rights issues arose,
when there is so much news to report:
the widespread and continuing use of torture by American soldiers,
President Bush and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger using
taxpayer money to put political propaganda on the airwaves,
a nationwide
drive to
end Social Security under the guise
of repairing it,
a revolution
in Kyrgyzstan overthrowing the national government,
a merger of the ACLU
and several right-wing groups co-interested in maintaining law and order
in these difficult times,
a delusional
incompetent with a terrible reputation nominated to head the World Bank,
state legislatures
considering “academic freedom” laws to let students use frivolous lawsuits
to sue non-right-wing professors out of existence,
remaining questions about the rush to war in Iraq,
serious allegations of misconduct against
top Republican Congressman Tom Delay, and of course
leaked Republican policy communications suggesting that
their motivation for pressing the Schiavo story is largely political.

Shame further on TV news for ignoring the facts of the matter and
calling on any
crackpot they could find to, without evidence, stand against
these facts that have been presented and argued over in more than
a dozen court cases before several different judges over a number
of years. Shame on MSNBC in particular for concocting
a graphic image
informing us that the Supreme Court denied Christianity. So that’s
it: the courts denied Jesus. The courts denied the Holy Faith. Of course,
the Schiavo case has nothing to do with Christianity, but as usual,
the media wants to fence the story inside their religious persecution box,
damn the facts. Not many years ago, the faithful would have said
that Terri’s fate was being placed in God’s hands. Many would have found
comfort in allowing Terri to go to God, rather than holding her back from her
eternal Reward. Now today’s self-appointed deans of morality are shouting “Murder!”, with some actually
calling
for murder.

Finally, the highest shame on Florida governor Jeb Bush for
sending
state police to seize the hospital and take state custody of Terri Schiavo’s
body and shame on the state police for following these unlawful orders.
And a word of praise for the local police who demanded to see a judicial
order: thank goodness there is still someone in a position of power anywhere
in this country who respects the most fundamental bases of law and order.