The stupid continues, even after Terri Schiavo’s death. Just heard Sean Hannity say the following:
“I never attacked Michael Schiavo. I don’t know if Michael Schiavo caused her condition, but I have questions that need to be answered.”
In that spirit, I offer the following:
I don’t know if Sean Hannity abuses his wife, but I have questions.
I don’t know if Sean Hannity buggers small children, but I have questions.
I don’t know if Sean Hannity likes putting whipped cream on his nipples and letting farm animals lick it off, but I have questions.
I think all of these questions should be addressed.
Craig Press
Just like LBJ once did. Spread rumors about him being a pig-fucker and he will have to deny it.
Brian J.
But it’s only innocent until proven guilty in the courts! they squeal.
Danking70
How dare you make those scurrilous allegations against those farm animals!
BumperStickerist
So … anyway, a country parson is making his rounds, talking to a group of people who’ve come out to hear him on a warm summer night …
The parson starts out — “It’s come to my attention that there are those among us who’ve taken to having improper relations with the Lord’s creatures .. people having carnal knowledge of goats, chickens, cows, sheep, even roosters. Brothers and Sisters, this must stop!”
The crowd is silent until a single voice is heard from the back:
“Roosters?”
ppgaz
I have questions, too.
For example, why is a person on television … that is, with a job being on television … who would raise scurrilous questions without some reason or evidence to support raising them?
Who lets these people be on television? Who decides that a one-second nipple shot during Super Bowl halftime is obscene, but that Sean Hannity is not obscene? Randall Terry is not obscene? Who decides these things for us, and why do we let them?
willyb
From Best of the Web Today, James Taranto: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/
After 13 days of court-ordered dehydration and starvation, Terri Schiavo is dead. CNN reports her husband, Michael, barred her parents from her bedside before she perished:
John Centonze, the brother of Michael Schiavo’s live-in girlfriend Jodi Centonze, said Michael Schiavo was with Terri Schiavo when she died.
A friend who phoned Michael Schiavo soon after news broke of his wife’s death said he couldn’t talk. “He (Michael) couldn’t speak, he was crying,” Russ Hyden said.
That John Centonze is certainly a mensch. It’s not every guy who would make time to act as the spokesman for his sister’s live-in boyfriend who’s just lost his wife.
cj
willy:
Give it a rest. You got nothing.
CJ
caleb
What the big suprise here…..republicans do this all the time.
This is just the latest….before that…..Kerry and his “affair” with an intern.
I don’t know if Kerry had an affair with an intern…but I have questions.
It’s the republican M.O.
Mr.Ortiz
Didn’t Hannity get the memo? If you’re gonna make baseless accusations on Fox News, you’re supposed to preface it with “Some people say…”
willyb
Caleb:
Are you saying that Michael Sciavo does not have a girlfriend, with whom he’s had two children. All the while maintaining his marriage with Terri Schiavo?
Oh well, Terri’s parents encouraged him to get a girlfriend, so it’s no really adultery. Right?
Sue
I think Michael Schiavo is a hero. He tried to carry out his wife’s wishes in spite of being maligned by the press, talking heads, right-wing crazies, and good-for-nothing politicians.
Sure, he could have unloaded Terri on her parents. But he chose to carry out his promise to her.
Did he cheat on his wife? I’m not sure what that means in this case. His wife was indisputably cognitively dead. But divorcing her meant that her parents could do whatever they wanted to keep her alive, including hacking off pieces of her body should she develop gangrenous bed sores. The Schindlers’ alive at all costs philosophy creeps me out.
I don’t begrudge him wanting to go on with his life – because he never abandoned Terri. That’s a lesson that a lot of morally righteous types could learn from.
BumperStickerist
Though … in Hannity’s defense, he had the Schindler attorney from a couple of years back who brought up inconsistencies and other issues she was looking to have admitted at the retrial.
Even allowing for Attorney-ese, there were enough things in there that were simply ruled out by the judge at retrial to ‘raise questions’ about the first trial.
Schiavo wasn’t a hero, by any stretch of the imagination – Felos, Schiavo’s attorney, is genuinely, manifestly creepy. Givent he way he waxed rhapsodic about Terri’s death and the joy, peace, flowers, et cetera .. given that she’s in a persistent vegetative state the flowers, peace, love, and such would all seem somewhat meaningless.
Given that her brain was filled with water and it was just her brain stem keeping her body doing that thing that bodies do … given food and water.
A *very rough* analogy would involve any case where the first trial effectively nullifies all subsequent findings of fact.
There’s things you can prove in a court of law and things you can prove to a bunch of people.
by way of (poor) analogy, O.J. didn’t commit murder … stop harshing on the guy.
Johnnie Cochrane would want it that way.
ppgaz
I’m amazed at the crap that gets posted in these forums and to these threads. “Michael” this and “Terri” that.
Try to get this: All of this is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. All of it, all the time. These things happen every day to hundreds, thousands of families in this country …. across the world.
It’s none of your business. the fact that it is on tv does not make it your business. The fact that you have an opinion does not make it your business. The fact that you have “feelings” about it, or some religious axe to grind, does not make it your business.
This was a private, family story. It was a story chaperoned by competant courts and competant representatives of the parties. Thirty thousand pages (according to a former guardian ad litem) of material were generated in the court processes.
Laws are passed to enable society to deal with these situations. Courts are given the authority to adjudicate them. Doctors are given the responsibility to represent the medical facts. Family members have various responsibilities and burdens to bear and pain to suffer.
If you don’t like the laws, change them. That’s the process that was given to you.
Mind your own goddam business. Tell your government to mind its own goddam business.
America is about freedom and independence, not about manipulation, gossip, trial by innuendo and tv, and sticking your nose into other peoples’ lives.
Turn off your damned tv and get a life. Leave these people alone. Unless, of course, you are out to have your own life become fodder for the cable news trucks and the Bill O’Reillys and the other pompous talking heads. To have your own life become a grotesque cartoon for the entertainment of trailer trash everywhere.
John Cole
*APPLAUSE*
CaseyL
The judge ruled those things out because there was no credible evidence to support them. You sound like those idiots who kept on believing Kerry had an affair with the intern, even after he said they hadn’t, she said they hadn’t, her parents said they hadn’t, and there was nothing outside Drudge’s fevered imagination to indicate they had.
And if you think Felos was ‘creepy,’ what on earth can be said about her parents? They’ve said they wouldn’t have respected Terri’s wishes even if she had left a written Living Will; they said they’d keep her ‘alive’ even if it meant amputating any part of her body that became gangrenous.
Felos was commemorating a release from an endless, living death.
The Schindlers wanted to keep their “Terri Doll,” an eternal infant they could spend years dressing up and cooing over.
That’s bordeline necrophilia. *That’s* creepy.
Sue
ppgaz:
So why are you here reading this stuff if you’re so adamant that it’s none of our/your business?
With all due respect, it is our business now that it’s been politicized – there are likely to be attempts to change the right-to-die and other laws so public opinion matters.
Allowing a bunch of live-at-all-cost fanatics to take control of the issue is a sure way to get a bunch of laws passed that do exactly what you’re yelling about – telling other people what they can/cannot do with their bodies.
So I will continue to talk about it and I will continue to spread the facts.
Jay
The streets are running red with all that violence you predicted, right John?
Oh and John Danforth’s piece in the NY Times was scare tactic BULLSHEOT. Every single time an issue here or there galvanizes the more conservative wing of the party there’s always a few dunderheads that start predicting the beginning of the end for the party.
Shit man, I’ve been hearing this nonsense now for the last 10 years. Ever since the GOP took over Congress we’ve had people trying to scare the hell out of people making them think James Dobson and Pat Robertson were the men behind the curtain, and sooner or later we’d be a THEOCRACY!!
Good grief. You’re the ones that need to get a freaking life. The country has survived so many goddamned things and there are people out there STUPID enough to believe there’s a small cabal of Christian radicals that have the power to take over the country. Get real.
I haven’t said much about this, but I’ve seen more knee-jerking in the last week and half to go out of my mind.
The country is going to be fine. Our constitution is going to be fine as well.
So everbody, have a fucking Coke and smile and chill the hell out.
John Cole
Jay- Guy tried to get a gun to rescue Terri, guy solicited to kill the judges involved, lunatics calling for the shooting of police, and now Delay is ramping up his rhetoric. I don’t think that 99% of the people protesting the withdrawal of the feeding tube would do anything violent, but I do think that the irresponsible rhetoric will inspire some lunatic to do something unfortunate.
I don;t think there are going to be widesscale riots, but it did take a couple of years for Oklahoma City to occur after Waco and Ruby Ridge. And I would add that I can live quite fine with the religious right- they can;t accept me, or my refusal to allow them to dictate their faith via the government. If I err on overestimating their impact, you most certainly are erring on the side of underestimating their impact and plans. Just look at what they are saying and what they have already accomplished.
unpoetaloco
Ask Seanny if he has questions for his friend Joe Scarborough about the “accidental” death of his former aid, Lori Klausutis.
Jason
John,
I listened to Hannity’s ramblings this afternoon, and I was thinking something very similar. Of course, Hannity doesn’t have the enough balls to make an accusation, he just wants to ask some questions. You know, enquiring minds want to know and all that.
One of your earlier posts you dared to question another radio talk show host I’ve been immensely frustrated with, Hugh Hewitt. (Sarcasm on) How dare you question Hugh? Don’t you know he wrote a book about blogs? Don’t you know he’s the most prominent visionary promoting blogs? You should be on your knees thanking him that he lets you have a blog. He’s the blogking! (Sarcasm off)
Seriously, I’m a libertarian who crossed his nose and voted Republican this year on the basis of foreign policy. I knew that at some point the Republicans would have to pander to the fundies, and I would regret my vote. I just didn’t think it would happen so soon.
To all those of you who think that John’s overhyping the theocracy line, I invite you to listen to the radio whinings I’ve been listening to. Listen to Laura Ingraham on your morning drive and hear one of the Schindler boys whining about about the tragedy of his sister being denied “the blood of Christ.” Listen to Laura’s emotional ranting. Then, on your lunch break, listen to Hannity make spineless accusations against Michael Schiavo, and then go home listening to Hugh Hewitt kvetch about the “culture of death.” These three commentators are voices that the Republicans listen to, and their voices carry weight within the party. None of them seem to have to time to read the actual court documents and educate themselves on this matter, but they won’t let that stop them from telling us what is right and proper.
One of my fellow respondents to this post commented that Micheal Schiavo’s attorney, Felos, is “creepy.” Who’s scarier Felos or the Schindler mouthpiece, Terry Randall? (Laura Ingraham derides Felos’ mock turtlenecks. Hey Laura, what about Randall Terry’s hair) The Schindlers themselves are pretty damn scary. Part of me suspects that they don’t want Terry cremated so they can tour the country with her corpse. If she is cremated, maybe they sell off scraps of her clothing on E-bay.
On the bright side, it looks like the holy rollers might lose three icons soon — first Terry the martyr, then the Pope, and maybe even noted all-around asshole Jerry Falwell.
Just my $.02,
Jason
John Cole
Jason,
You had me to the last sentence. Terri Schiavo was an innocent, and the Pope is a wonderfully decent human being who has served as a spectacular example and a source for spiritual rejuvenation for billions. As such, neither should be ridiculed, talked of irreverantly, or treated with contempt.
Jerry Falwell is a different matter altogether.
ppgaz
I’m talking to the rightwing religious buttheads who insist on making other peoples’ business their business.
As for politics … another lame excuse. Political interest does not make the Schiavos’ affairs your business. As a matter of law, and policy, the issue can be parsed and discussed without delving into the family’s private matters, without characterizing people in the family and talking about them as if they were characters in a soap opera.
Discuss the policies and the law to your hearts’ desire. But to those who insist on bloviating about the family members, their motives and behaviors, I say again, it’s none of your damned business.
The alternative to my view is to accept living in a maudlin fishbowl in which every life passage is reduced to Court TV, and 24-hour-a-day blathering by pundits, most of whom have no idea what they are talking about.
When I say “every problem”, in case you don’t get it, type in “your problems”. Your life, your family, your illness, your death throes, your loved ones’ struggles and legal initiatives, all strewn across the tv screen and the talk radio waves. Hysterical idiots shouting and waving signs outside your bedroom window.
Can I have a show of hands from those who want to live in that world? The rest of you, who don’t … the solution is simple: Mind your own damned business.
ppgaz
“A small cabal of christian radicals?”
If only it were small. It’s large, and it is the tail wagging the dog, or should I say, elephant.
What you see happening today is the unraveling of the rule of law, and the unraveling of the separation of state from church, and the unraveling of the balance of power so carefully constructed in the Constitution.
To pretend otherwise is either blindness, or just dishonest.
The sex police, the thought police and the bathos police are already getting their hands on all the levers of power in this country at the federal level. Politicans and government officials are publicly scolding citizens for doing nothing more than living their lives as they see fit, and pursuing their rights and meeting their obligations under the law.
It’s nuts, it’s un-American, and it’s not acceptable. Don’t tell me that “everything is all right.” It isn’t. Put Tom Delay in jail, and put Hannity in a stock where he can be publicly shat upon, and then everything will start to be all right. Let government start to show some respect for the whole spectrum of citizens’ views and closely held beliefs, and maybe I’ll believe it.
Jon H
Kinda offtopic, but I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy that the Schindlers weren’t allowed to be with Terri when she died.
It’s sad, but it was their choice to run a scorched-earth campaign against Michael Schiavo.
Which continues, with one of their friar allies calling Michael Schiavo and Judge Greer “murderers”.
foo
So is John Cole at a tipping point? Or will he buckle down in the next few days and drink even more of the Bush Kool-Aid?
Jason
John,
Sorry I lost you at the last sentence, as I have found your blog to be one of the better ones out there. I didn’t mean to ridicule Ms. Schiavo, I was ridiculing the way the religious right has made her into an icon.
As for ridiculing the pope, I am most definitely someone who does that. Without turning this into a pontiff-bashing post, let us just politely agree to disagree on this matter.
It’s nice to know that Republicans, Democrats, and 3rd-party supporters can all come together and loathe Jerry Falwell.
As an on-topic, I find it hilarious to listen to Hannity suddenly praise Jesse Jackson for thrusting himself into this matter. Is anyone surprised by this? I mean, is there a bigger attention whore in America than Jesse Jackson?
Jason
RheGirl
I don’t know if Sean Hannity likes putting whipped cream on his nipples and letting farm animals lick it off, but I have questions.
You’ve been hanging out too much at Protein Wisdom, man.
RW
[shiver]
Careful, John, that sounds a lot like when Clinton blamed Rush Limbaugh for Tim McVeigh’s bombing attack in OK City.
You, me, and many other people, have put forth our opinions and sometimes they have a large bit of passion and vilification, and I certainly don’t want you or I to get any blame should some lunatic decide that the targets of our condemnation deserve violent retribution. Emphasis on “lunatics”.
It would be the lunatic’s fault, John, not yours or mine. Or Hannity’s. Simply pointing out when he gets out of line is sufficient, and you’ve done a tremendous job of that. Laying the foundation that his words would somehow be a part of some hideous act by a madman is sorta pushing the slippery slope, don’t you think?
Heavens, what would happen to many of us should something untowards befall kos or atrios (Oliver’s digging his own grave by himself, so that doesn’t count)? How much blame do we get for our words?
Jay
What you see happening today is the unraveling of the rule of law, and the unraveling of the separation of state from church, and the unraveling of the balance of power so carefully constructed in the Constitution.
Oh please. The impact of legislation such as the line-item veto and the ‘Comminications Decency Act’ were far more overreaching and far more dangerous to the Republic than the Schiavo legislation. One presumed to take the powers out of the hands of the legislature. The other sought to restrict our first amendment rights.
I wish people would get this upset over our drug laws which have been turned civil liberties in this country on it’s head. I wish liberals would get this righteous over the attempts to quash our 2nd amendment rights. Nobody seems to care much about that.
But one little piece of legislation gets passed and suddenly the sky is falling.
And if you think somebody like Sean Hannity has that much influence, then you’re delusional. Ask 10 people on the street who Sean Hannity is. I bet 8-9 of them don’t know. Those of us who are heavily into politics, think everybody else knows who the players are and we’re wrong.
And John, what exactly has the “religious right” been able to accomplish?
ppgaz
Jay,
You manage to be right and wrong at the same time. You should go into politics. A talent for being wrong while being right about part of the thing is worth its weight in gold in Washington today.
The fact that most people do not know who Hannity is does not mean that these events are insignificant.
It means, instead, that a rather small and very vocal, nasty and stupid bunch of people have the Republican party by the gonads. Oh, and in case you haven’t read the paper in the last few years, that’s the party that RUNS THE COUNTRY now.
It’s not about the Schiavo case. It’s about the way these dumb and dumber Republicans are acting.
That was, and is, my point. Thanks for helping me make it, again.
RW
ppgaz,
You guys have been saying that for years. It’s almost up there with the “if the deficit gets any bigger, the interest rates will skyrocket” mantra.
Chicken little has indeed spoken.
ppgaz
I don’t know who “you guys” are, but I have been saying it for about two weeks. So have a great number of Republicans and responsible conservatives. Maybe you should write to them?
RW
A great number of Republicans and responsible conservatives (I’m guessing that’s the definition of people who agree with you) say a lot of things. Are they right on taxes, spending, gay marriage, the left, Clinton, Kerry, Hillary, etc., or are they only prescient and responsible when they say what you agree with?
Should you write them or would they only note the sudden opportunism for picking and choosing?
When is this great biblical takeover going to consummate, anyway? Last time I checked, abortion was still legal and they weren’t forcing people to read the bible during school.
As I said, chicken little.
Jay
ppgaz, don’t get into semantics. You’ve been saying it for two weeks. People with the same thought process as you have been saying it for years and years.
That’s what Ricky meant by “you guys.”
And “you guys” have been more wrong than the Jehovah’s Witnessess in predicting the end of the world, with your predictions of a theocracy led by a small group of zealous Christian right-wingers.
ppgaz
Sure, you guys are 100% right — provided that you can sell the idea that the Schiavo debacle is just business as usual.
The President of the United States and his governor brother and the apparently most powerful man in Congress are trying to intervene in the personal affairs of a few citizens in Florida, calling judges murderers and passing patently unconstitutional legislation at midnight on a Sunday, and nothing is wrong, nothing is happening, stop whining.
Okay, fellows. This game is over. You are clearly living in your own parallel universe, completely out of touch with reality.
I don’t know why anyone here even bothers to respond to you. You’re completely clueless.
suds
it’s the DOTS, dumbies …. those satanic judges, ya know the ones related to the GAY marriage freaks up north … what we need are them ten, our commander in cheat wants to appoint for a lifetime …. where’s your sense of patriotism ????
Sue
Well, let’s see. Pharmacists can decide what medicines a client is “morally” allowed to have. Physicians can decide who is “morally” worthy of treatment. But that has nothing to do with the religious right. Uh huh.
Jay
Sue, who is the ‘religious right?’ And does the principled stand of a few pharmacists here and there have to do with the “religious right?”
And pp….blow me. I always know when I’ve gotten the upper hand on somebody. They respond by saying, “Oh you’re just stupid.”
You have yet to show how this one action displays some kind of pattern that is taking us down the path to a theocracy. Again, I have been listening to this bullshit argument for the last 10 years. Nothing has changed. If it has, tell us what has changed. Stop taking one issue and attempting to use it as a blanket for everything you keep claiming is true, but cannot prove.
Sue
Principled stand? I don’t see anything principled about keeping people from obtaining legally prescribed medications.
Um, who do you think these folks are? Liberals? Fiscal conservatives?
RW
That’s like saying because Wal Mart doesn’t sell Playboy, they’re “keeping people from obtaining” their porn. Let’s keep the scenario straight, okay?
Under the heading “How to tell when you
ppgaz
You know what I’m talking about. You are trying to change the subject.
Nobody is calling for the end to any party. Strawman, and deflection.
Is that all you got? Evasion, strawmen, deflection?
disinherited
So, when do we find out if Hannity buggers small children?
WJC
WOW! RW and Jay sure know how to win arguments. RW even has a book that tells him how and when he has done so.
Jay, Address the points that were made: the role of government, the structure of that government and the present party’s tendency to despise these features; when convinient. Until then, you have won nothing.
Sue
“That’s like saying because Wal Mart doesn’t sell Playboy, they’re “keeping people from obtaining” their porn. Let’s keep the scenario straight, okay?”
Excuse me, but for somebody who lives in a small town with one pharmacy and has an immmediate need for their medication, it is a tremendous problem.
For somebody who is in an emergency room and the pharmacist refuses to prescribe the required drug, it’s a tremendous problem.
Comparing porn to medications is stupid. I’m sorry you can’t figure that out.
RW
Not really.
It’s called rx.com.
It was an analogy illustrating the false premise put forth, Sue. Look, my wife as prescribed birth control pills for other reasons (I’m a dude, so I don’t ask about that stuff) and we lived in a very small town (graduating class of 42 people), so I know all the worst-case scenarios.
And no one who wants their prescription filled will be kept from getting their prescription filled. It’s only a matter of whether or not someone has to go out of their way (internet, or driving) to get it done versus some folks running to their favorite solution (getting Democrats to mandate what people must do). That’s the decision.
Heck, I’m in GA and I can’t legally buy a six pack on Sunday, but I know that I can either buy it on Saturday night or drive over to TN……no sense me waiving the victim flag and calling for federal intervention.
RW
Speaking of evasion, did you write Rev. Jackson and ask him why he was a part of the GOP’s religious right trying to take over the party? How about Senator Harkin?
Why did you evade those notations? Is it because it belies your opportunistic argument?
Some people are too stupid to even click a link and read a humorous entry noted as such.
ppgaz
Do you actually write these blurbs, or are they generated by software?
RW
Dodge duly noted, ppgaz.
I have not compunction to continue a pissing contest with someone who obviously has nothing to offer but anonymous ad hominem attacks (I’m sure your daddy’s proud), so I’ll bid adieu. I can go to eschaton for this.
John Cole
It’s only a matter of whether or not someone has to go out of their way (internet, or driving) to get it done versus some folks running to their favorite solution (getting Democrats to mandate what people must do).
I disagree. We regulate who can and can not be a pharmacist, and they are licensed by the state to be phramacists. We already tell them what they can and can not do.
This is not a problem of government, this is simply more of the arrogant hubris from people who think they know what is best for everyone. Any pharmacist who refuses to provide drugs prescribed by licensed physicians and caregivers should immediately have his licensed yanked and should be denied the privilege of serving as a pharmacist.
Sue
Thanks, John, for stating it better than I have.
RW
Those two sentences are contradictory. Who yanks the license? The government.
Look, I’m not someone who supports the people refusing to fill the MA prescriptions, so don’t get me wrong…..I don’t think it’s taking a life or whatever those people think, I’m saying that I don’t want the gov’t stepping in until it HAS to step in.
Correctamundo. And now we’re going to have the state dictate what is dispensed, on top of dictating what is legal to dispense and how much is legally dispensable? Why not just go its logical conclusion and eliminate private pharmacies and go to state-run rx shops?
Steve Malynn
RW, you’ve hit the nail on the head of John’s selective federalism.
Adrianne
Michael wasn’t the victim…Terri was…look at the court reports…affadavits….and info on both sides….there are a lot of unanswered questions…and everyone has a right to question what appears to be attempted murder twice…..