I agree with Sidney Blumenthal:
The politics of piety were transparently masked by Republicans in their attempt to make capital over the fate of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman who has been locked in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years and whose feeding tube was ordered removed by a Florida state judge at the request of her husband. At last, the case that had been considered by 19 judges in seven courts and appealed to the Supreme Court three times, which refused to hear it, seemed resolved. But Republican congressional leaders and President Bush seized upon the court ruling as the moment for “a great political issue,” as a memo circulated among Senate Republicans put it. The Democrats, it declared, would find it “tough,” and the conservative “pro-life base will be excited.” The president, who had hesitated for three days before making a statement on the tsunami last December, rushed from his Crawford, Texas, ranch back to the White House to sign the legislation…
Terri Schiavo cannot speak or gesture, but to true believers, she is making sounds only they can hear. They see what they want in order to believe and they believe in order to see. For the first time, public policy in the United States is being made on the basis of pitting invisible signs vs. science.
As in some tribal cultures, a confederacy of shamans — Bush, Frist and DeLay — have appeared to conduct rites of necrophiliac spiritualism. Only the shamans can interpret for the dying and control their spirits hovering between heaven and earth. Public opinion polls show overwhelming disapproval of the Republican position. But these polls are just so much social science. In this operation, for the tribe, there is no way of proving failure.
I feel sick. And if you want more on the anti-science front, read the Mystery Pollster, who is in a real snit about the charges that the network polls about Schiavo were biased, and he unloads on the hucksters deluded into thinking pretending lying asserting that these were “push polls”:
First, a plea for reporters, editors and bloggers of all ideologies: Can we please stop using the term “push poll” to describe every survey we consider objectionable? Yes, complain about bias when you see it, but the phrase push poll belongs to a higher order offense. To summarize the definitions posted online by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), The National Council on Public Polls (NCPP) and the Council for Marketing & Opinion Research (CMOR): A push poll is not a poll at all but rather a form of fraud – an effort to spread an untrue or salacious rumor under the guise of legitimate research. “Push pollsters” are not pollsters at all. They do not care about collecting data or measuring opinions (even in a “bogus” way). They only care about calling as many people as possible to spread a false or malicious rumor without revealing their true intent. Whatever complaint one might have about the wording or reporting of the ABC poll, it was certainly not a “push poll.”
End rant.
For additional clarification, an example of a push poll might be if a certain group of people supporting a certain candidate in the Republican primaries in South Carolina in 2000, facing strong opposition from another candidate, were to obtain a list of undecided voters, call them, and saysomething along the line of:
Would it change your opinion of [Candidate X] if you knew that he had adopted a black baby?
Would you be more or less likely to support [Candidate X] if you knew that he was gay?
Would it change your opinion of [Candidate X] if you knew that he cheats on his wife?
Would you be more or less likely to vote for [Candidate X] if you knew that he is a crook a liar?
How would you feel about[Candidate X] if you knew that he and was a coward and traitor who renounced the United States during his captivity in Vietnam?
That, folks, is a push poll. In the past, I have chosen to believe the people I have supported would have nothing to do with this sort of thing. I am not so sure anymore. But to assert that wording in a poll you disagree with makes it a “push poll” is absurd. I can excuse basic ignorance of polling and statistics and the methods of data collection, most of the people in my stats classes and reserach methods classes didn’t understand most stats either, but calling the network polls “push polls” is a new breed of stupid. I might add that the new Democratic reliance on the Mystery Pollster is pretty funny, considering they hated him/her when he/she was debunking all the nonsense about the statistical anomolies in Ohio in 2004.
And while I am venting my spleen, let’s discuss Joe Scarborough, someone who I think is normally pretty sane, and his hideous performance last night on Scarborough Country:
FIEGER: But the problem is, they
Jon H
I find it ghoulish and disgraceful that Hannity & Colmes are broadcasting from, apparently, outside the hospice.
Christopher J. Arndt
Look, I already believe the worst in anybody. I believe that the guys I supported would do a push poll and I have no opinion on the morality of that decision/policy.
No suprise on a push poll.
I do, however, feel that it is no vice to choose to err on the side of life. Or rather err on the side of caution in the field of the unknown when life is at stake.
Ron Phelps
what I don’t understand john is I saw SCARBOROUGH was a fraud when he first came on. Why didn’t you. You seem rational.
I think you guys need to examine why you thought those things you did.
The media is OWNED by a very large coorporation.. noone really knows who owns what.
Now this might be the pepe lopez talking but..I am only a democrat because I saw these guys – bush and company as crooks.
And really didn’t want to vote for a damn crook.
But I have come to realize that none of those jokers.. dems or gop .. are leveling with us.
they are all stupid rich and only want to get richer.. oh hell.. what do you call that..
a … that phrase … rich and only want to get richer.. ah … boloney.. anyway…
you get the point.
As I think about it, we should have all gone out and voted for the green party by the millions.. that would have freaked the status quo out… :-)
Sav
Says Sidney:
“At last, the case that had been considered by 19 judges in seven courts”
The merits of the case have not been considered by 19 judges. Appeals courts only decide if the state court judge properly conducted the trial.
“But Republican congressional leaders and President Bush seized upon the court ruling as the moment for “a great political issue,” as a memo circulated among Senate Republicans put it.”
A memo that now looks to be no more of what it’s claimed to be that CBS’s.
John says:
“I feel sick.”
I would too quoting Sidney Blumenthal.
mishar
John, I just want to say, you are not alone. It’s really a relief to read someone who feels the same way and is having the same disgust.
I respect the people like the man above, who disagree with the court’s decision or really with the Florida law. But I don’t know any somewhat reasonable person can countenance the lies, and the misinformation, and the fantasies being presented as science. Not to mention the open defiance, not just of our constitutional principles, but the open rule of law.
Keep up the good work. You are not alone.
Andrew J. Lazarus
In this case, the Florida Appeals Court did, in fact, state that it independently agreed with Judge Greer’s finding of a persistent vegetative state.
But more to the point, even supposing that today’s random groans were some miraculous attempt at speech (which I do not believe for a moment, given that the speech part of her brain is destroyed), how can one tell she wasn’t trying to say, “I want to die.”
Steve4Clark
The wingnuts didn’t understand Reagan.
Reagan would say something like “trees create more greenhouse gasses” or somesuch, but he did it to get a rise out of people and provoke debate. He never believed it.
But the Republican party today, when they say something ridiculous, they actually believe it.
Joe
Do your research, man.
Beside latching onto that memo of dubious origin, you’re running the Elizabeth Whelan TechCentral article without informing your readers that Whelan’s degree is in Public Health.
She is criticizing a neurologist for not being “renowned” and she has 0 neuro background herself.
After you cut and paste from Instapundit, you might want to spend a minute or two on Google.
tom scott
Feiger? Feiger? Would that be Geoffrey Fieger, renown lawyer for Jack “Dr. Death” Kevorkian? Can you check and see what Charles Manson feels about this case?
Yeah, that “republican Talking Points Memo” is a real howler. Good night. It’s time for CBS West Virginia to go off the air. See you later Gunga John.
Jon H
Um, tom scott, I don’t think John is responsible for booking guests on MSNBC.
Undoubtedly, there are many better people to have on. But he’s the one they went with. Probably for the purpose of increasing the sensationalism of the segment.
John Cole
Joe:
I was unaware that you had to be a neurologist to examine someon’s credentials.
Oh, that is right. You don’t. What she stated is accurate.
On the other hand, in order for a neurologist to diagnose someonem you would think a physical examination and neurological tests would be in order.
Let’s try it this way: Pretend Cheshire believed Terri Schiavo was in persistent vegetative state, with the exact same credentials, except instead of working for a group of Christian Bioethicists, he worked for a group that advocated Euthanasia, and he did it without an examination of Terri.
Good. I am glad we now agree. Cheshire and his ‘expert testimony’ is bunk, which is why the judge in the case probably spent, oh, 8 minutes considering it. If he spent that much time, he wasted 7 1/2 minutes, IMHO.
And I don’t know what your beef with Instapundit is, but what the hell does the source of an internet link have to do with anything. Google is useful, I think we can both agree, but probably more so with me. I am able to synthesize the facts I access via google. You apparently throw them all together and make word salad, judging by this comment.
I understand that passions run hot, and you may feel strongly about this issue, but your broadside is exactly what I am talking about in this post.
Bob
I would like to see a psychological history constructed on the Schindler family. Terri was a shy girl, overweight and with few social skills. Michael Schiavo, by most accounts, was a dominant figure, maybe domineering, I don’t know. Did Terri see Michael as her father and an escape from her father? The Schiavos moved from Pennsylvania to Florida following the Schindlers. I doubt it was coincidental, but I’d like to hear an explanation of it. I wonder when Terri’s bulimia first arose, what relation it had to her upbringing and her self-image as a child, and how her relation to her father and her relation to her husband fit into that illness. When someone loses half her body weight, someone in the family, Michael, Terri’s family, should have suspected something awry.
How much of the Schindlers doggedness is trying to keep Terri alive is religious, is a struggle for wrestling control of Terri from Michael, and how much is generated by guilt of their own parenting failures? I doubt if there is anyone around willing to give a straight answer.
And I wonder if this battle is just a continuation of a battle for control of Terri between Mr. Schindler and Michael that’s been going on all along.
It seems this battle is what underlies a lot of reactionary political thinking, a blind obedience to patriarchy, and what eventually separates reactionaries from libertarian thought.
None of this excuses Hannity, Scarborough et al from their roles in this farce.
Bob
I would like to see a psychological history constructed on the Schindler family. Terri was a shy girl, overweight and with few social skills. Michael Schiavo, by most accounts, was a dominant figure, maybe domineering, I don’t know. Did Terri see Michael as her father and an escape from her father? The Schiavos moved from Pennsylvania to Florida following the Schindlers. I doubt it was coincidental, but I’d like to hear an explanation of it. I wonder when Terri’s bulimia first arose, what relation it had to her upbringing and her self-image as a child, and how her relation to her father and her relation to her husband fit into that illness. When someone loses half her body weight, someone in the family, Michael, Terri’s family, should have suspected something awry.
How much of the Schindlers doggedness is trying to keep Terri alive is religious, is a struggle for wrestling control of Terri from Michael, and how much is generated by guilt of their own parenting failures? I doubt if there is anyone around willing to give a straight answer.
And I wonder if this battle is just a continuation of a battle for control of Terri between Mr. Schindler and Michael that’s been going on all along.
It seems this battle is what underlies a lot of reactionary political thinking, a blind obedience to patriarchy, and what eventually separates reactionaries from libertarian thought.
None of this excuses Hannity, Scarborough et al from their roles in this farce.
John Cole
The last damned thing on the face of the earth we need is a bunch of psychobabble aired publicly about the family.
What we need is for this family to be left the hell alone.
Ron Phelps
What is this?
from mediamatters.org
Savage compared Democrats to the infamous “doctor” of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Josef Mengele:
The radical Democratic left is an army of soulless ghouls. Being of the living dead, they live in a world of death and try to impose it on we the living. Witness who led the charge: a radical homosexual, Barney Frank. A radical abortion Mafiosa, Barbara Boxer. What is difficult for we the living to comprehend is the reason they can engage in such anti-life abominations is because they have no souls. They have said that the tears of Terri Schiavo are mechanical. They have said that her smile is reflexive. They can rip an emerging child from the womb, murder it, and call this a compassionate act. Like Mengele — the doctor of death from the Nazi concentration camps — the radical, soulless Democrats keep referring to “the doctors,” as if a medical degree guaranteed humanity. Therefore, choose life. God bless George W. Bush.
Buchanan, meanwhile, compared the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube to Nazi “crimes against humanity”:
A woman has been sentenced to death not because she committed a grave crime, but because she is severely brain-damaged. And she’s been sentenced to death by dehydration and starvation, an innocent person.
When the German doctors committed those crimes in the 1930s, even before World War II, they were put on trial for crimes against humanity.