1 Plus 3455
March 24, 2005
Howard Dean’s election as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee signaled the green light for liberal wackos to seep from the cracks. In a Toronto address to “international” Democrats (Chirac rumored to be in attendance), Dean blamed the Party’s bottomless pit of losses to the "brain-dead" Republicans on not being...very disciplined about how we deliver messages.” So, of course, picking up on the code word “brain-dead”, the “brain-dead” New York Times immediately started penning editorials about Terri Schiavo.
Since Schiavo did not: (1) vote for either Howard Dean or John Kerry; (2) is not a murderer; (3) has brain damage; and (4) never partied in the Oval office...the Times wants her dead. And further, the Times warns that “Congressional leaders are playing a dangerous game with their intrusion into the hotly publicized fight in Florida over maintaining life support for a severely brain-damaged woman.”
In this case of capital punishment, the Times is appalled by Congress’s (spelled Republicans’) attempt at “intervening in a case already studied and litigated exhaustively under Florida law.” The Old Gray Lady asserts that “The new law doesn't miss a chance to trample on the state's autonomy and dignity.” I never knew the liberals at the Times were such states’ rights advocates.
In a humane effort, Congressional Republicans are trying to clear the way for Schiavo to have the same “rights” afforded to any murderer in the right-to-die battle between her parents and philandering husband. Curiously, when it comes to the brain-damaged, the liberals find cause to redefine the Eighth Amendment. After all, dehydrating and starving a brain-damaged person to death is not the “cruel and unusual punishment” that giving a child rapist-murderer a lethal injection would be.
It’s so funny how liberals become such states’ rights advocates when it comes to torturing the brain-damaged to death. Florida Democrat Rep. Robert Wexler thinks that "It is not the place of Congress in the 11th hour in the most abusive fashion to undermine the Florida judicial system" because "Florida courts for seven years have found by a standard of clear and convincing evidence, that” Terri Schiavo should be starved to death. Hey Wexler, Terri’s mother begged you not to “use this bill as your own personal agenda”.
Please remember that Democratic Congressman (tongue-in-cheek) Alcee Hastings was once a District Court judge in Florida. Of course, Hastings was impeached from the federal bench when it was found by a five-judge committee that Hastings had fabricated documents submitted as evidence and committed perjury 14 times. So much for ex-Florida judges and present Democratic Congressmen.
It’s also funny that when, in 1999, the Congressional Black Caucus insisted “Justice demands that the federal court system take a fresh look at the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal”, the editorial page of the Times went silent. A search of the New York Times editorial archives dating back to 1996 was more barren than Maureen Dowd when it came to any mention of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
In their typically selective application of civil rights, the Times found nothing wrong with a call from the Congressional Black Caucus for federal intercession on the part of a black convicted cop killer but become born-again states’ rightists when Republicans urge judicial review for a brain-damaged white woman. Ahh...the sweet smell of liberal pandering.
In a dire warning about the future of America, Democratic Representative Jim Davis of Florida is certain that "These actions today are a clear threat to our democracy". Let’s get real here. How can a Congressional action calling for the federal judiciary to review the case of a brain-damaged woman condemned to death by starvation be a “threat to our democracy”. This sounds like Lester Maddox talking about Brown v. Board of Education. Where were the liberals when it came to that encroachment on states’ rights? Where are the Democratic states’ rightists when it comes to Roe v. Wade?
Sadly, the liberals see any attempt to save Terri Schiavo as a “code” conspiracy to reverse Roe v. Wade (when it comes to killing babies, states’ rights don’t matter). As the Times so bluntly stated it “Meanwhile we can only lament the Republicans' theatrical effort to expand their so-called pro-life agenda....”
So, let’s give the devil his due. Let’s assume that when it comes to the innocent, decent people (usually conservatives) have a “so-called pro-life agenda”. But, just maybe, conservatives should yield to the liberals on this one and let the games begin.
Let the liberals set a new precedent on the Eighth Amendment and finally validate a method of execution that is not “cruel and unusual”...death by dehydration and starvation with no need for condemnation past the state court systems.
Terri Schiavo can be the first victim of this politically correct capital punishment. By last estimate, there are 3455 condemned people awaiting execution on America’s death rows. The solution is obvious. Terri Schiavo plus 3455 convicted felons makes for a good day at the Roman Circus.
No more federal reviews or appeals of the condemned’s sentence. Just keep the cell doors locked, shut off the water spigots and stop serving meals. Within two weeks America’s death rows will be empty and justice will have been served in a humane fashion. Or, in the alternative, why not just administer a lethal injection to Schiavo?
Any person who thinks that dehydrating and starving a person to death is not a violation of the Eighth Amendment is ready for a seat in the coliseum. Think how much fun it would be to pig-out on hotdogs with a drooling Michael Moore while watching brain-damaged people starve to death. Now, that is a case of steroid-fortified American sporting entertainment. Of course there wouldn’t be much left for the lions to eat.
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