US Senate to convene emergency session. (Schiavo) Fox news. Tom Delay speaking now

Fox News

[Ravi]

Just heard on Fox that U.S. Senate will convene today in emergency session regarding Terri Schiavo.

[Joe 6-pack]

Opponents of this legislation and Michael Schiavo both have a vested interest in Teri's death. They will do all within their power to eliminate every possibility that she ever speak again.

[Graymatter]

5 o'clock? Gosh, what's the hurry? Why not just table the whole matter until Judge Greer is finished---desecrating Holy Week with a human sacrifice?

Today is the feast day of Saint Joseph. During a terrible famine in Sicily, the people prayed to him to deliver them from drought and famine, and their prayers were answered. Saint Joseph is the patron of families, fathers, people in doubt, social justice, travellers, and those who are dying.
http://www.ewtn.com/Devotionals/novena/joseph.htm

[sweetliberty]

"Where are all the noisy Democrats who recently took to the Senate floor blathering about saving the lives of carribou in Alaska??"

Probably busy drafting a bill that would allow teachers to have sex with children...as long as the teachers are queers.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

The MSM is saying Greer is a conservative. (probably like Specter is a conservative)

Yea, right and I'm a size six.

What I'm dreading is having to watch CNN in order to find Congressman King.

[jwalburg]

During her early-afternoon speech Kate declared that “If they want to kill Terri they should have the guts to put a gun to her head” rather than condemn her to such a slow and painful death. She finished off by summing up the full import of the Schiavo case, saying, “The measure of a society is how they treat the least of us. Life is sacred or meaningless, there is nothing in between.”

That is a unique way of putting it. Why don't they just shoot all "severely brain damaged" people they can't stand to look at. This is no different. It just takes longer and causes more agony.

[Lovergirl]

If this passes, and it gives Terris family a chance to go thru the Federal courts, does that mean the family can take her out of Florida? (Somebody HAS to get her out of there)

[Exit148]

Please, dear Lord --- let common sense prevail and get that feeding tube back where it should be, and PLEASE remove the power from that driven judge!

One thing really bothers me about the husband saying that "Terri told me that she wouldn't want to live that way". What if some widow said: "My husband told me that all the family money and jewels would belong to me". Why is one persons word taken for truth when it is only that persons say-so?

[traviskicks]

Personally, I'd think the fact that our money is forcibly taken from us to support a socialistic public school system is more of an 'Emergency' then this.

The fact that 300 billion a year is stolen from US citizens to be spent on farm subsidizes is more of an 'Emergency' then this.

The fact that, under threat of imprisonment, we are forced to pay money into government run programs of SS and Medicaid, which loose our money and impoverish the country are more of an 'Emergency' then this.

The fact that our government confiscates, under threat of force, billions of dollars from it's own citizens to give to courrupt socialistic dictatoriships around the world in the name of 'stability is more of an 'Emergency' then this.

The fact that the FDA, through it's criminal holdup and reckless mismanagement of the drug certification process and its blatant violation of the most basic ideals of the constitution - the right of an individual to freely contract, is indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans and the citizens of other nations is more of an 'Emergecny' then this.

But hey! Who am I to judge what an Emergency is!? Go ahead! Get all hot and bothered and emotional over this and hoot and holler and call your senators.. yadda yadda yadda...

This is Ridiculous. You all are Ridiculous. And our Government officials are Ridiculous.

[Nick Danger]

we thought the subpoenas would work because you can't tamper with a federal witness... why should anything else work if greer is just going to ignore it, and Jeb won't use actual force?

Cool your jets. People are trying to do this in a way that doesn't set precedents that might come back to bite us. Greer does not seem to be on that team; he decided to precipitate a showdown with the federal government.

We already know that the federal government wins these things. But Jeb is not a federal officer. For him to use force here starts something that we probably don't want to get into... executive branch officers ignoring court rulings and using "force" to impose their wills. We don't want that in America.

Yes, the woman is hungry at the moment, but she isn't going to die today. There is still time to do this in a way that doesn't poke holes in our common understanding of who's in charge.

The feds put lawyers on the plane to Florida yesterday. Today some time, they will get a federal judge to issue an order putting the tube back in until the Senate's subpoena has been satisfied, i.e. until March 25. The federal court order will trump Greer's court order, and federal marshals can go in to enforce the federal order, if necessary.

Between now and March 25, the Congress will agree on some law that gives people in Terri's condition (no written living will, etc.) access to the federal courts. Bush will sign it.

That starts the whole struggle over again, but this time in the federal courts. That will take years.

[Types_with_Fist]

Press conference on this coming up per FOX.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Absolutely.

[Boardwalk]

I'm a size 6. :)

[madprof98]

That is a unique way of putting it. Why don't they just shoot all "severely brain damaged" people they can't stand to look at.

Don't be ridiculous! Don't you know guns are evil??? (Coming soon: Lethal injection for the handicapped!)

[freedomdefender]

Right now, the law presumes do all in the absence of documentation to the contrary. I think attorneys like felos want to change the presumption to death.

You hit the nail on the head. The "legal presumption" in incapacity cases is what's at stake here, and it's a HUGE issue that goes way beyond Terri. Florida law says that the judge must presume against withholding feeding, unless there is clear and convincing evidence that that's what the patient wants. AS a Florida Internation U. Law Professor wrote in the Miami Heral last week, obviously there isn't "clear and convincing" evidence that Terri would want to have nutition and water withheld. All they have are ambiguous statements, offered into evidence as hearsay, annd there are statements that go both ways. So in the absense of clear evidence pointing one way, you don't withhold the nutrition. The law prof. wrote that it was "shocking" that greer had order nutrition withheld, on such flimsy evidence. Essentially, as you say, he's turned the presumptions on their head - - he's presuming for death, not for life. If this is a change that society is going to make, the legislative branch must do so - - NOT the judiciary. Felos seems to want to get it done through the courts.

[housewife101]

I must admit to not understanding why the federal gov't doesn't have the right to uphold."THE RIGHT TO LIFE,LIBERTY,AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS..." Somehow judges,instead of elected representatives, have the right to do whatever they want, whenever they want with no one to stop them.

THis is what concerns me-judicial tyranny.

[tiredoflaundry]

I am too, but won't say how many times 6 ;-)

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

I don't know.

[processing please hold]

OK, whoever has the key that has locked Traviskicks on this thread....toss um the key so he/she can leave.

[DBeers]

How would all this apply to the thousands of others out there in a similar situation to Terri? Particular those with living wills? Is this the federal government's business?

The federal government does represent the people and the question is not that simplistic and constrained -life is an inalienable right from the Creator. Life is not a right given by the state or federal government. As such, life trumps matters of the state.

[verity]

I tend to agree with your view.