From Digby’s Blog:
Tom DeLay of Texas says:
"Mrs. Schiavo’s life is not slipping away – it is being violently wrenched from her body in an act of medical terrorism… Mr. Schiavo’s attorney’s characterization of the premeditated starvation and dehydration of a helpless woman as ‘her dying process’ is as disturbing as it is unacceptable. What is happening to her is not compassion – it is homicide. She doesn’t need to die, and as long as Terri Schiavo can breathe and her supporters can pray, we will not rest."
By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush
signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove
life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival,
regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile
Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his
mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a
temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.
Those of us who read liberal blogs are also aware that Republicans have
voted en masse to pull the plug (no pun intended) on medicaid funding that
pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others
who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country.
Those of us who read liberal blogs also understand that that the tort
reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude
malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus
far.
Those of us who read liberal blogs are aware that the bankruptcy bill will
make it even more difficult for families who suffer a catastrophic illness
like Terry Schiavo's because they will not be able to declare chapter 7
bankruptcy and get a fresh start when the gargantuan medical bills become
overwhelming.
And those of us who read liberal blogs also know that this grandstanding
by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the
religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be
anathema to any true small government conservative.
Those who don't read liberal blogs, on the other hand, are seeing a
spectacle on television in which the news anchors repeatedly say that the
congress is "stepping in to save Terry Schiavo" mimicking the unctuous
words of Tom Delay as they grovel and leer at the family and nod
sympathetically at the sanctimonious phonies who are using this issue for
their political gain.
This is why we cannot trust the mainstream media. Most people get their
news from television. And television is presenting this issue as a round
the clock one dimensional soap opera pitting the "family", the congress and
the church against this woman's husband and the judicial system that
upheld Terry Schiavo's right and explicit request that she be allowed to
die if extraordinary means were required to keep her alive. The ghoulish
infotainment industry is making a killing by acceding once again to trumped
up right wing sensationalism.
