Open thread

Back in DC. Getting ready for the week. Read More......

Michigan preparing to let doctors choose NOT to treat gays

Maybe we should call Dr. DeLay? Read More......

Open Thread

What's new? Read More......

Open thread - and a request for some help

UPDATE: You guys were tremendously generous, thank you! No more donations are necessary, Michael now has enough to get the new computer (fortunately he already has the monitor, keyboard, etc., so all he needs is a tower). I think Michael was a bit shocked when I just called him - he didn't know I/we were doing this. This was terribly nice of you guys, thank you :-) JOHN

I'm heading back to DC in a few hours. Fellow AMERICAblog blogger Michael in NYC had a computer meltdown last night and is pretty much screwed - it's dead. Michael wasn't really budgeting for buying a new computer right now, so I have a favor to ask. For the next few days, any donations you make to AMERICAblog will instead go towards helping Michael get a new computer, so he can get back to blogging (and working - he's a freelance writer, so no computer means death). So please, if the spirit moves you, make a donation with the "Make a Donation" link at the top of the page via PayPal, and I'll pass 100% of the money along to Michael. He doesn't know I'm doing this, and won't for a while since he has no computer to find out!

Thanks as always, and Happy Easter to any non-orthodox Christians out there. JOHN Read More......

Now that Jeb Bush is in trouble, suddenly the GOP supports the rule of law

GOP congressman Curt Weldon was just on THIS WEEK with Stephanopoulos, and he started defending Jeb Bush. Jeb is under attack from Terri Schiavo's family for not helping save Schiavo in these final days. Weldon said that he's not sure Jeb has the power under Florida law to do anything to help.

Oh really? Suddenly "the law" matters to pro-Schiavo republicans? Funny just a week ago they had no problem passing a new "law" to GIVE THEM the power to do something. Now suddenly they're not so thrilled about using Congress to help out. Just a few days ago, Jeb even tried, reportedly, to send in the troops to nab Schiavo. Why not do it again? If this is truly a matter of life and death, to hell with the law, right? I mean, that's what the republicans and their religious right buddies have been telling us for a week now.

And what about President Bush? Where is he? He can send in the National Guard or the troops to get Terri Schiavo. Sure, it would be akin to declaring martial law, but hey, this is the culture of life we're talking about, and anything goes with this administration so long as their heart was in the right place. If this is about the evil activist judges (or "inactivist judges," as Michael in NYC calls them) breaking the law and refusing to save a poor woman who's being murdered, how can Jeb and George now refuse to stop it?

Sounds to me like Jeb and George took a look at the polls and are now getting cold feet. Apparently, the culture of polling means more to them than the culture of life. Read More......

Terri Schiavo's father pulled the plug on his own mother?

That's what the Guardian says:

But, given the vehemence with which he has been fighting to prolong Terri's life, it is a little surprising to learn that Robert decided to turn off the life-support system for his mother. She was 79 at the time, and had been ill with pneumonia for a week, when her kidneys gave out. "I can remember like yesterday the doctors said she had a good life. I asked, 'If you put her on a ventilator does she have a chance of surviving, of coming out of this thing?'" Robert says. "I was very angry with God because I didn't want to make those decisions."

Note these additional quotes in the article:

"People are being executed every day. I don't mean by the law. I mean executed by being starved to death - mainly the elderly, and people with Alzheimer's," says Robert. "There is a big, dark secret out there."

His other daughter, Suzanne Carr, who is five years younger than Terri, is more expansive. "This whole notion of doing away with a group of people who don't contribute to society or who can't feed themselves or who are expensive to maintain, that is bizarre, that is crazy," she says. "You might as well put down handicapped people."

I still say, if feeding tube = starvation, then ventilator = suffocation. Spare me the "one is murder and the other is humane." I don't mean to criticize the parents, they're obviously beyond themselves with remorse over their daughter's condition, but this entire affair is about extreme emotions and not logic. Read More......

W's Week

This week started on such a seemingly high note for W. With great drama, he flew back to DC from Texas to sign the Schiavo Bill. The Bushies thought they had a real winner. (And we all know how he hates to interrupt his vacation's down on the ranch. In August 2001, he stayed there even after learning Al Qaeda was going to attack in the US.)

But let's review what's happened since then:

CBS News reports that 82% of Americans oppose the intervention of Congress and Bush in the Schiavo case;

On Monday, a school shooting in Minnesota killed 10 people -- the worst school shooting since Columbine. Bush makes no comment on those deaths for days, invoking much criticism. Associated Press put it like this:

Some American Indians have complained that Bush did not respond publicly to the shooting for four days. Just hours after the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School that left 15 dead, then-President Clinton publicly expressed his condolences.

Bush's delayed reaction was in contrast to his swift intervention in the Terri Schiavo case. The president interrupted his vacation and hurried to Washington on Sunday to sign legislation allowing federal courts to consider the case of the brain-damaged Florida woman;

Bush's approval numbers are dropping fast in every single poll. CBS has it the approval rating at 43%. MyDD has the breakdown of all the polls;

The top domestic priority for Bush is dismantling Social Security. Despite months of campaigning for his Social Security agenda, we learn, via AP, from Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), who chairs the Finance Committee that it's not going to happen. According to Grassley, "I think it's very difficult for me to say today that we'll present a bill to the president." Grassley's comments makes it highly unlikely Congress will follow Bush's lead on the issue.

His brother, Jeb, has gone from hero to scapegoat in the Schiavo situation. Today's New York Times reports:

Governor Bush, who has said he has done all he believes he can under Florida law to prolong Ms. Schiavo's life, has become a particular target of the protesters' scorn in recent days. Some advisers to the Schindler family were openly hostile to him on Saturday.

Popularity dropping, policy failing....things are looking ugly for the White House these days.

Let's see how Bush and Rove are going to change the subject. If they stick to their tried and true pattern, we'll be at Code Orange...or in another war very soon.

UPDATE: Today's Washington Post has a piece by Peter Baker titled "Bush's Back-and-Forth Reflects Rift in Party." My favorite paragraphs:

Polls show the vast majority of Americans, including conservatives and evangelical Christians, disapprove of the decision by Bush and Congress to get involved in the Schiavo matter. And more worrying for the White House, those polls have also shown a significant drop in Bush's overall approval ratings.

"It's been a very sticky issue for the president," said Stephen Moore, a Bush ally and president of the Free Enterprise Fund, which promotes limited government. "I think no matter what course he took, he was going to come under criticism. I personally believe Bush would have been better off not intervening at all."

The case came at a time when Bush was struggling to sell his plan to overhaul Social Security. "This is the second bad thing to happen to him this year, Social Security being the first," said Andrew Kohut, executive director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. "We've had a week that I don't think they can count on advancing their agenda."

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DeLay pulled the plug on his own father

Culture of life, my ass. And I love how his spokesman says the circumstances were different. Really? DeLay's dad had a ventilator and Schiavo had a feeding tube, the spokesman said. Oh, so you mean rather than starving him to death like Terri, DeLay simply chose to suffocate his father to death. Oh yeah, much nicer option. His father was alive and he chose to let him die. But by DeLay's own words, he chose to kill his own father. Wonder how many other Senators who didn't speak up against this legislation have parents or relatives that they murdered (to use their language)? Read More......

GOP Theocracy in Ohio

Jim Dao has a fascinating, and somewhat frightening, piece in the NY Times today about the Ohio Restoration Project. Apparently, the conservative churches in the state are planning a takeover of the GOP:

Christian conservative leaders from scores of Ohio's fastest growing churches are mounting a campaign to win control of local government posts and Republican organizations, starting with the 2006 governor's race.

In a manifesto that is being circulated among church leaders and on the Internet, the group, which is called the Ohio Restoration Project, is planning to mobilize 2,000 evangelical, Baptist, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic leaders in a network of so-called Patriot Pastors to register half a million new voters, enlist activists, train candidates and endorse conservative causes in the next year.

The initial goal is to elect Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a conservative Republican, governor in 2006. The group hopes to build grass-roots organizations in Ohio's 88 counties and take control of local Republican organizations.

So, at least now they are being up front about it. The OH GOP will really be the party of the right wing zealots. The theocracy is no longer theoretical.

I love this passage:

"The establishment of the Ohio Republican Party is out of touch with its base," said Russell Johnson, the pastor of the Fairfield Christian Church and the principal organizer of the project. "It acts as if it lives in Boston, Mass."

Damn, those right wingers love to bash Massachusetts. Even better, though, is the reaction from the GOP leaders in the state:

Republican officials are watching warily. The chairman of the state party, Robert T. Bennett, warned that the decade-long dominance of his party could be jeopardized if it was pushed too far to the right. "This is a party of a big tent," Mr. Bennett said. "The far right cannot elect somebody by itself, any more than somebody from the far left can."

Note to the GOP: To quote from the Bible (I think it's appropriately Biblical) "as ye sow, so shall ye reap." Read More......