Schiavo case = America teetering on totalitarianism?

What's really scary about the Terry Schiavo debacle is how many people are calling for Governor Bush and President Bush to, in their words, disregard law and take action.

Should the executive branch gains power to overrule the judicial branch, we will be in a totalitarian state. The whole reason the Judicial branch is there is to interpret the laws that the executive branch wrote. If the Executive Branch has a problem with that, they can change the laws, or if necessary, the Constitution.

In this respect, it's the same old abortion issue - really, to ban abortion, the Constitution of the United States needs to be edited so that life begins at conception. Period. There's no law that can be written to circumvent it.

There is a tragedy of ironies in this case, too.

1. Right wingers, who by definition are endorsing totalitarianism in that Executive Branch should overrule Judicial, have accused the courts of being like the nazis in World War II putting to death disabled people.

2. Right wingers, who so vehemently argue about the sanctity of marriage when it suits their purposes of bashing gays, completely disregard the sanctity of marriage in this case. Apparently marriage is sacred enough to bash gays, but not sacred enough that the intimate last wishes of a wife cannot be carried through by the husband.

3. Most of the "Christian Conservatives" who are arguing for putting back in the feeding tube have no problem with the killing in the Iraq War.

4. The whole reason Terri is in her condition is from a heart attack from a potassium imbalance. In plain and simple English, Terri was bulemic and was so undernourished that she killed her brain. ... She starved herself to get her into this situation, and starving is apparently how she'll get out of it.

Messed up, for sure.

I had also been complaining about how there are tons of better issues that are more pressing and affect many more Americans. I came to realize why this case is such a stickler - this is all about the ancient mind/body/soul debate.

Folks who are very traditional Christian don't think of the mind as part of the soul... so immediately they see Terri breathing and assume her soul is still in her body. This seems to make sense...

Then folks who are typically athiest see her EKGs and hear that her brain is liquified say, "her brain's dead... there's nothing left". This also makes sense.

One could also say that a body without a brain is not sufficient for the soul to reside in a body... but one could also that perhaps her soul is trapped in the body.

But even assuming the latter, is God going to damn someone for eternity for passing on because they don't have a brain other than automata responses? I severely doubt it.

I completely agree. All this partisan bullshit drives me crazy.

It's never gonna end.

And the media fucking loves it.

I think if God him/herself came down and personally ruled on this, people still wouldn't shut up.

Just wait to see what happens when she dies....unfortunately it could be this weekend which will have people going nuts.

What amazes me is that even though most of the American public regards the horseshit surrounding the Schiavo case as the worst kind of politicking and exploitation, the media, the Republican Party, and the Christian Right proceed blindly as though they are speaking to or leading some great majority who are cheering them along.

What's scary is how it's both sides of the media - both left and right.

I suppose political leanings fly to the wind when ratings are on the line.

I thought it ironic also that this is happening Easter weekend. Could you imagine if she died on Good Friday? And then came alive again on Easter? *snickers* Okay, just kidding... but it would be crazy.

Actually, it appears to me that the Republicans are not all for reconnecting the tube. It seems that this has become sort of a wedge issue within both parties. The "smaller government" Republicans backed off while the religious right faction pushed ahead. Also, that emergency bill did bring over a few typically liberal Democrats.

I've said it before and I'll say it again....

My long years working in T.V. have taught me this:

There is no true right or left media - there is only corporate media. Even Fox - it only differs in that it tows the line of Uncle Rupert rather than bend to the wind of ratings.

Higher ratings = higher priced advertising = more money for the station. That's it in a nutshell.

The media is all over it because it puts bums on chairs -- your bum is there with them. If people stopped watching the sensationalistic horseshit thats being shoveled to them then things may change, real journalism could make a comeback... but we all know thats never going to happen.. I'd say about the same chance of me growing a third testicle overnight.

Rather if it bleeds it leads and folks will sit back and eat up the nights listing of trainwrecks till their brains melt to the point where Terri will be the most mentally competant person left.

Siggy.

Yep.
I normally shy away from generalizations, but it seems the media is more about pushing people's buttons and getting attention (and the power, profit that comes with it) than being objective.

You are SO correct in saying this is the same abortion issue:

The entire circus is being led by Randall Terry, founder of "Operation Rescue".

In a quote from Terri's father: “Our family asked Randall Terry to come, and we gave him carte blanche to put Terri’s fight in front of the American people,” Schindler said. “He did exactly what we asked, and more. Randall organized vigils and protests, he coordinated the media, he helped us meet with Governor Bush.”

Randall Terry is the same guy who in a 1995 speech, said of doctors who perform abortions, “When I, or people like me, are running the country, you’d better flee, because we will find you, we will try you and we will execute you.”

Since that time three doctors have been murdered by operation rescue. Essentially, the man is the leader and financer of terrorist.

I guess the sanctity of life only applies to those who are dying, in a vegatative state or not born yet.

It's also pretty obvious that the greater majority of the American people are not being represented in government by EITHER the Republicans or Democrats. The Republicans are aligning themselves with the likes of Randall Terry if it suits their political purposes and the Democrats are shaking in their boots and not speaking up because they are afraid of losing their next election.

The media has long been "corporatized" and certaintly is nothing but big business and no longer even comes close to being a public service. More like a public dis-service.

Our sole protection is the judicial branch of government and the laws that they uphold. If that can be over ridden then we are in very big trouble.

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You're right. I couldn't resist the dig. Although actually the highly-visible Republican leadership, which includes politicians desperately seeking to deflect publicity over ethical charges, and medical and legal professionals who ought to know better, sided with the feeding tube faction. The Democrats were a bit more quiet, or to be fair, perhaps a bit more spineless.

How about some of the sanctimonious busybodies who want to get between this husband and what's left of his wife start picking up the medical bills and spending nights at the hospital?

-- jj

The media has the ability to report the news with accuracy, balance, and depth. That they mostly don't demonstrates the spinelessness and unprofessional attitudes of journalists, and corporate lack of comprehension about both civil duty and the long-term, direct profitability of credibility among the public and the leadership. Fox News simply takes these issues to the extreme; they're present in nearly all media outlets.

However, the media could, and occasionally does, play a vital role in society. Journalism simply needs to be "fixed".

"The whole reason the Judicial Brance is there" is not to interpret the laws written by the executive, but by the real law writting body - Congress and the Senate. With that said, Congress can already 'over-rule' the judicial branch, specifically the Supreme Court by changing the Supreme Courts jurisdiction and not allowing the Supreme Court to hear such cases as deemed by Congress.

At the inception of the Constitution the executive branch was not a law making body, and the role of the judicial branch was not judicial review.

B. Dawson

Your right, it could be "fixed" but it's kind of like the "which comes first, the chicken or the egg" scenario.

Does the repair begin with educating media consumers to the extent that they quit paying good money for empty, repetitive stupidity?

Or does it begin with the corporations who sell the news re-designing the products and then marketing them in a manner that convinces the consumer that they really do want substance?

It doesn’t help that certain journalists can sell themselves to the highest bidder to produce what essentially should be classified as "advertisements" and obscure it as a researched, critical journalistic opinion and then not be held accountable for the deception.

Not to mention the deceptive practice of passing off what amounts to an editorial opinion as a critical accounting of an event.

Sadly, either way, I don't think it's an easy fix.


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All, of course.

A public that is aware, educated, non-apathetic, and willing to work to be informed. And willing to seriously question Oprah, Dr. Phil, and Bilious O'Reilly.

An educational system turns out aware citizens and good journalists. (The quality of graduating journalism students has eroded awfully over the last thirty years.)

Corporate ethics that include the concepts of long-term planning and profitablity, and the profitability of the milieu.

Actual standards of journalistic professionalism. Not just something to talk about, something with teeth.

And so on. In other words, a perfect world.

The US Media is nothing but a joke. I personally do no watch main stream news. I get my daily news from Democracy Now. You can get their news from the radio, website, or on Dish Network and Direct TV. Amy Goodman is the wonderful person who gives the news. You should check it out.

DEMOCRACY NOW - The War and Peace Report

Unfortunately its not just American media anymore....Every major news organization world wide has their slant.. I tend to get news from API and Reuters because the majority of the time they report just what happened with no fanfare....but even they in recent years have had their slants.

BBC, anyone? No advertisers to please, no government control ...

Interestingly enough, a requirement toward getting an MD is to have completed a Medical Ethics course. The same constraint, more recently, applies toward obtaining an MBA (a course in Business Ethics).

I don't know enough about journalism to know if there is actually a course requirement for "Journalistic Ethics", but if there is not, there should be.

There is a difference between being entertained and being informed. People need to understand the difference when media is presented and I think that the line between these two is not distinct enough now.

Corporate ethics are a strange thing. Internally, amongst employees, I think that ethics have improved greatly. The company I work for has seminars on a regular basis to discuss our policies with regard to ethics and to make sure we understand them. All of the people that I work with make very honest, ethical decisions concerning their work and their co-workers and that is not an exaggeration.

The problem however, seems to be with the corporate entity in of it's self. It's like a body, there can be a lot of really good cells but it only takes one malignant tumor in a critical location to threaten the entire individual. Pressure to "grow the business" and return greater and greater profits can be come unreasonable and serve to help create these malignant individuals that threaten the whole.

I think we all have to ask ourselves whether or not our individual actions contribute to the unethical actions of others. Across the board, from products we buy to media we choose to spend our time watching to the law makers and politicians that we elect to office.

Apathy will surely lead to Totalitarianism or worse because it will allow a small faction of society to decide for the greater population what in fact, those ethics will be.


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it's a distraction from gas prices rising, Bush losing the social security debate, the gay prostitute who somehow was the favorite reporter of the Whitehouse until he was unmasked, the 2 year anniversary of the entrenched war in Iraq and the allies leaving, the budget cuts (now they are cutting money for local infrastructure), the economy that is not trickling down, the looming deficit, North Korea with even more nukes etc etc, the Republicans need a distraction, too bad Bush already signed a law saying the opposite of what he said about Schiavo (ok for hospitals to pull the plug against parent's wishes)....

Randall Terry is also the same guy who is begging for money on his website to buy a new house, while at the same time he is refusing to pay his child support. I guess he REALLY wanted those kids...

You got it - he values marriage so much that he divorced his first wife of 19 years and married his administrative assistant, 20 years his junior.

Then he bought a house in Jupiter Florida that just HAD to be on the water - somewhere in the neighborhood of $420,000, which he has asked the people who donate to Operation Rescue to finance.

He claims he lost everything to lawsuits, but really, his wife of 19 years did, house and all.

This man is truly evil. There is no other word that I can find to describe him.


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At least that tribble of a hairpiece he has is amusing.