Posted on 04/04/2005 8:06:29 AM PDT by tessalu
Vice President Cheney says he opposes revenge against judges for their refusal to prolong the life of the late Terri Schiavo, although he did not criticize House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) for declaring that they will "answer for their behavior."
Cheney was asked about the issue on Friday by the editorial board of the New York Post. He said twice that he had not seen DeLay's remarks, but the vice president said he would "have problems" with the idea of retribution against the courts. "I don't think that's appropriate," he said. "I may disagree with decisions made by judges in any one particular case. But I don't think there would be much support for the proposition that because a judge hands down a decision we don't like, that somehow we ought to go out -- there's a reason why judges get lifetime appointments."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Take the "Constitution Restoration Act of 2004". Never got out of commitee.
The ONLY Congresscritter I can find that supports cutting funding is Ron Paul. There may be more, but I can't find them. A SINGLE Congressman. Yet we keep paying the 11th Circus court to set the standard for whackjobs on our dime.
Thomas Jefferson was right; if the executive and legislative were timid and didn't do their jobs we'd end up with a "despotic judiciary".
You've got to give it to the framers. Not only did they create the best system of government ever devised, but they also envisioned how it could go wrong and we still let it slip through our fingers.....
You self-righteous types who like to profess your Christianity at ever turn actually don't behave as Christ taught us. In your blind zealotry, you would tear down the entire constitutional structure of the United States just to make your pseudo-Christian point that judges must knuckle under to your demands.
The complete context matters. Nothing in my statement (nor that of the Vice President) suggests that we are not allowed to disagree with our leaders. Rather, I stated my point of view as to why the poster did not agree with the VP. That is far, far different from saying he or she could not agree.
Of course, maybe this concept will stretch your reasoning power to its limit, but we all have our crosses to bear.
It is possible to conclude from his actions that he grieved for his wife who passed from him 15 years ago, wanted to carry out her final wishes, and had moved on with his life.
This may or may not be true, but it is not beyond comprehension. We aren't hearing his side of the story.
Yes, I'm afraid it is, unfortunately. And unless people wake up to this fact, kiss the Country as a republic, a servant of the people, good bye.
Thomas Jefferson was right; if the executive and legislative were timid and didn't do their jobs we'd end up with a "despotic judiciary".
And that's exactly what we've got.
Ah, so if they don't agree with you, they must be ill-informed.
I can't believe Cheney said "just because we don't like a decision". Don't "like" a decision? I don't just "not like" the decision that led to an innocent, helpless, disabled woman being executed slowly over 13 days, by dehydration and starvation, while her mother and family were forced to watch, with the thug police camped out in her room and her adulterous husband and sick death freak lawyer hovering over her. It makes me want to vomit. I'm sickened by "the decision"! How could such a hideous thing have happened in my country?
What's worse, is that it looks like with the exception of Tom Delay and the few decent people who tried to stop this, the weasel politician's, lawyers and judges, aren't going to do anything about it.
I'm fed up. I'm donating some extra money to Free Republic (I'm already a monthly donor) and then I'm signing out . Can't deal with this anymore.
It just frustrates me to no end that people don't get it, or maybe they are cold hearted? I don't know. I'm heartbroken that this was allowed to happen.
Does anyone who likes trivia happen to know how many women voted for Terri in the House and the Senate and how many voted against her?
Please ping me if the answer shows up.
I've seen some lists, but was mostly concerned about how my reps voted.
Some teenager in western Iowa burned the house down and killed her two siblings. She was intending to kill her stepfather who was abusing her. Did anybody post the story?
Not to make you more upset, but please see my post #213 on this thread
Law changed by Hospice where terri is dying - More information (Unsourced)
Of course, on that thread, there are many, many other FReeper's posts which show how . . . such an hideous thing has happened in our country.
An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded. Pope John Paul II (How many excuses did Michael come up with, and worse, he excused himself by saying it was what Terri would have wanted.)
(3) Before exercising the incapacitated patient's rights to select or decline health care, the proxy must comply with the provisions of ss. 765.205 and 765.305, except that a proxy's decision to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging procedures must be supported by clear and convincing evidence that the decision would have been the one the patient would have chosen had the patient been competent or, if there is no indication of what the patient would have chosen, that the decision is in the patient's best interest.
The husband's hearsay evidence seven years after the fact is not clear and convincing evidence. Did you read Diane Meyers affidavit? Did you read Judge Greer erroneous decision in the case on this issue? He said that Diane Meyer gave compelling evidence and he believed that the incident happened, but that Terri use the present tense when speaking of Karen Ann Quinlen in 1982, so therefore Diane must have been mistaken and that the incident had to have occurred in 1976, since Karen Ann Quinlen died in 1976. So according to Judge Greer, Terri would have been 12 or 13 at the time that she and Diane Meyers were together and said "Where there's life, there's hope" and also said "doctors didn't know everything". Diane also testified she said something callous about Karen Ann Quinlen and Terri jumped all over her about her callous remark about the brain damaged woman. So Judge Greer claimed that the only hearsay evidence when she was an adult was the husband's. He was wrong. Karen Ann Quinlen lived until 1986. This was caught a few months ago and went back to Judge Greer, as reversible error. He denied the motion and said it wouldn't have affected the outcome, even though he had used erroneous information in making his decision in the first place.
The law does not say that the patient can be denied food and water orally. In fact another law says you can not withhold water and nutrition from the disabled. There are affidavits from nurses that Terri was originally taking food by mouth, sometimes a baby bottle was used. She was also fed jello and pudding by mouth. Michael Schiavo would not allow the nurses to continue feeding Terri by mouth.
765.404 Persistent vegetative state.--For persons in a persistent vegetative state, as determined by the attending physician in accordance with currently accepted medical standards, who have no advance directive and for whom there is no evidence indicating what the person would have wanted under such conditions, and for whom, after a reasonably diligent inquiry, no family or friends are available or willing to serve as a proxy to make health care decisions for them, life-prolonging procedures may be withheld or withdrawn under the following conditions:
(1) The person has a judicially appointed guardian representing his or her best interest with authority to consent to medical treatment; and
(2) The guardian and the person's attending physician, in consultation with the medical ethics committee of the facility where the patient is located, conclude that the condition is permanent and that there is no reasonable medical probability for recovery and that withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging procedures is in the best interest of the patient. If there is no medical ethics committee at the facility, the facility must have an arrangement with the medical ethics committee of another facility or with a community-based ethics committee approved by the Florida Bio-ethics Network. The ethics committee shall review the case with the guardian, in consultation with the person's attending physician, to determine whether the condition is permanent and there is no reasonable medical probability for recovery. The individual committee members and the facility associated with an ethics committee shall not be held liable in any civil action related to the performance of any duties required in this subsection.
So they passed that food and water were life-prolonging procedures in 1999, then proceeded to pass laws, year after year that allow assisted suicide of the disable with a wink and a nod.
This doesn't pass the smell test either; Felos and Martha Lenderman (sister of judge John Lenderman, associated with Greer) used to be on the Board of that Hospice where Terri was killed. Also, John Lenderman, Judge greer's fellow judge on the 6th circuit court, joined the Advisory board of the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast for the year 2000. How does that NOT present questionable intent/influence/impartiality???
I think VP Cheney misunderstands. Retribution or vengeance have nothing to do with this case.
This case (and another one in which a woman was killed by her spouse because Greer refused her protection in the face of a very obvious need for it), and maybe others, highlight some extremely puzzling and irrational decisions which seemed to run on the fuel of his apparent bias in favor or Michael Shiavo (even in the face of common sense evidence against it). SO THEN A JUDGE SHOULD HAVE A LIFETIME GODLIKE RULE OVER PEOPLE'S LIVES WHEN IT IS LOOKING A LOT LIKE THEIR ELEVATOR DOESN'T GO ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP FLOOR FOR SOME ODD REASON? Is impeaching such a one vengeance or is it prudence? Felos had him buffaloed, Shiavo had him buffaloed - - or something. Nothing made sense here except that the law was twisted like a pretzel to accommodate Felos and Mikey Shiavo. Being a judge doesn't automatically make them immune from being corrupt.
My word, they passed laws that allow assisted suicide/Euthansia/murder! Euthansia is illegal in this country yet states are doing it legally. I don't get it!
There has been a continuing series of "one toe over the line" decisions that have expanded judicial preogotives to the point where they can now issue a death warrant for innocent people.
This is not about resolving the situation, its too late, the lady is dead.
This is about turning the judiciary back into a co-equal branch of government.
I don't know the guy but I think his screen name "Antirepublicrat" is a shortening of republican plus democrat. He doesn't like either party. I could be wrong though, my wife tells me I'm wrong all the time but she can't back it up with creditable cite.
Well, not everyone here is a Republican either, but we are a very Conservative site, and he obviously doesn't fit in that category.
Perhaps the whole court system down there is in need of fumigating. (Guess they're fed up with all the "geezers" retiring down there and annoying them in traffic. I'm a "geezer", so I'm insulting myself. Talk about a "final solution" to a lot of problems.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.