Right Wing Nut House

Looks like the New York Times has made a deliberate editorial decision to bring down powerful House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. But like a cowardly assassin who plunges the knife in from behind, they’ve apparently been fishing around for a prominent Republican to do their dirty work for them:

Conservative columnist Robert Novak reports that the Times got in touch with former House speaker Bob Livingston who was forced to resign during the Clinton impeachment imbroglio because of his own extramarital shenanigans, and asked him to write a piece that would have essentially cut Delay’s feet from under him and urged his resignation. Livingston would have none of it:

Livingston in effect declined by responding that if he wrote anything for the Times, it would be pro-DeLay. But this remarkable case of that august newspaper fishing for an op-ed piece makes it appear part of a calculated campaign to bring down the single most powerful Republican in Congress. The Democratic establishment and left-wing activists have targeted DeLay as the way to end a decade of Republican control of the House.

Ironically, this campaign’s intensity may protect DeLay from Republicans who in their secret hearts would like to see the sometimes-overbearing Texan fall. No GOP politician wants to be the handmaiden of DeLay’s Democratic detractors. Last Wednesday’s closed-door caucus of House Republicans gave DeLay a standing ovation. Contrary to claims on leftist Web sites, no Republican member has called for the majority leader’s resignation.

Would somebody tell me how the Times can look its readers in the eye and say with a straight face that they even pretend to be impartial? With all the lefty whining about Fox News and its bias toward Republicans, why is it that this type of activity is seen as “crusading journalism” rather than the shallow, crass partisan politics it really is.

Kudos to Livingston for turning them down. And for shame on the Times for violating journalistic ethics by turning the op-ed page of its newspaper over to the notion of advancing the agenda of a bunch of partisan radicals.

WELCOME AOL BLOG NEWS READERS!

Welcome to the House! Feel free to browse some recent posts. Click the painting of the notorious London insane asylum Bedlam above to get to today’s post on last night’s exciting episode of “24.”

Don’t you just love the game show “Jeopardy?”

I always wanted to audition to be a contestant on the long running syndicated quiz show but somehow never got around to it. No matter. Even though I’d probably do pretty well on some of the categories like history, literature, and science, I’d probably screw the pooch on some other Jeopardy favorites like opera, contemporary TV and music, and the most difficult category of them all, “All in the Family Spin offs.”

But hey! When it comes to border security, our government apparently plays Jeopardy every day! And they do it with our money! Plus, according to the GSA, our government is letting a couple of well connected corporations play too! And the worst thing? The corporations are cheating so that they win every time!

Now you may think that border security is much too important to play games with and I’d have to agree. But just imagine if Alex Trebek were hosting a “Border Security Edition of Jeopardy.” And the great thing is you don’t have to be a Phi Beta Kappa or a Mensa member to play along. Just follow the smell; the stench of corruption and graft permeating the first line of defense between us and the terrorists.

Here’s how we play: There’s a $239 million government program to install cameras and other sensors along the 6500 miles of the Canadian and Mexican borders. I’ll give you the answer and you have to figure out the question. No cheating now!

THE ANSWER: A critical network of cameras and sensors installed for the U.S. Border Patrol along the Mexican and Canadian borders has been hobbled for years by defective equipment that was poorly installed, and by lax oversight by government officials who failed to properly supervise the project’s contractor, according to government reports and public and industry officials.

THE QUESTION: What is the $239 million Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System (ISIS), which U.S. officials call crucial to defending the country against terrorist infiltrators.

Okay, that was an easy one. How about something a little harder.

THE ANSWER: The GSA inspector general’s report said official inattention to the system “placed taxpayers’ dollars and . . . national security at risk.” A GSA inspection of eight Border Patrol zones found that $20 million had been paid to IMC for work there but that none of its camera systems was fully operating.

THE QUESTION: What is near Buffalo, IMC billed the government for 59 cameras but only four were installed, and in Naco, Ariz., unassembled high-tech gear was found lying in the desert, the report said. “No IMC personnel had been on-site since the equipment was delivered” in 2003, the report added.

IMC took over the project from an Alaskan company in 1999. What’s interesting is that IMC employs the daughter of Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), who also happens to be a major sponsor of the legislation authorizing the program. Representative Reyes has a novel explanation for the nepotism:

Rep. Reyes said that he never interceded with U.S. officials to help IMC win a contract and that he helped IMC retain congressional funding because he believes cameras “are an important part of our ability to defend the borders.”

I do believe in fairies…I do believe in fairies…

THE ANSWER: The most troubled part of ISIS was in Washington state, where the more than 64 cameras fogged up in cold and rain and sometimes broke down completely, according to Border Patrol officials and the GSA report. IMC-hired workers had done such shoddy wiring of fiber-optic cable at junction boxes that Border Patrol operators couldn’t control the cameras, according to the officials and documents. Electrical wires were found corroding under water in supposedly sealed concrete vaults, they said.

THE QUESTION: What is it was common, the GSA report said, for the government to pay IMC “for shoddy work . . . [or] for work that was incomplete or never delivered.”

But the deal gets sweeter for IMC. Evidently, they subcontracted some of the work out to one of their own subsidiaries in gross violation of federal contract regs:

Over the objections of Border Patrol officials, INS official Walter Drabik chose cameras distributed by a firm called ISAP. U.S. officials and contractors said IMC had bought the ISAP firm without disclosing it to U.S. officials. This allowed IMC to buy cameras from its own subsidiary, substantially increasing profits. Undisclosed self-dealing could be illegal.

The GSA report said officials’ lax oversight of IMC’s purchases of cameras and other gear “created a potential for overpayments of almost $13 million.”

THE ANSWER: About that time (2000), Congress threatened to eliminate the ISIS program, and IMC turned to Rep. Reyes and other allies to help rescue it.

THE QUESTION: What is within months, INS and GSA officials granted IMC a contract expansion worth $200 million, with no competitive bidding.

Okay, stop sputtering. The uninitiated among you may be asking how we go from almost canceling a program to giving a $200 million no-bid contract to a firm that employs a Congressman’s daughter and that has already spent millions of dollars on equipment that either hasn’t been delivered or doesn’t work.

I always liked R.J. Haddon’s explanation of government waste and corruption in the movie Contact:

The first rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

In this case, two separate contracts to a firm with ties to a powerful Congressman as well as current and former Border Patrol agents and administrators.

THE ANSWER: A snake, a worm, and my pet cat Ebony:

THE QUESTION: Who has more integrity and brains than most of the people involved in the ISIS project.

“ON YOUR KNEES FRENCH PIG DOG! LICK MY BOOTS AND GROVEL AT MY FEET. YOU LIVE TO SERVICE ME. YOU WILL BE ‘MY SPECIAL ONE.’ AND YOU SHALL WORSHIP MY LOVLINESS.”

Senator Robert “Kleagle” Byrd has a lot of history to answer for. Born with the most magical name in Virgina politics, the Senator nevertheless grew up poor. His constant harking on his hardscrabble roots to voters plays very well in the mountains and “hollers” of his native West Virginia. And his “good old boy” demeanor on the campaign trail has meant electoral success for more than half a century.

It’s not unusual to erect statues to prominent politicians. I remember a statue of Abe Lincoln in my home town. It was an interactive statue in that kids would climb all over it, hang from the Great Emancipator’s outstretched arms, and sit on his gigantic feet.

But Abe Lincoln had been dead nearly a hundred years by the time that statue had been built. I guess Senator Sheets didn’t want to wait that long:

The Morgantown lawyer made his announcement near the base of a statue of West Virginia’s senior Democratic senator at the state Capitol in Charleston.

Sen. Byrd has set a new standard for taxpayer-funded narcissism by convincing the West Virginia Legislature to erect a statue of himself in the state Capitol. The statue’s completion violates state law prohibiting statues of government officials until they have been dead for half a century.

What a weird feeling that must be! To know that a permanent likeness of yourself is already gracing the Capitol of your home state would give me the willies. But then, I must not have the ego and chutzpah to force the issue through the state legislature in the first place.

Byrd’s opponent may be Hiram Lewis IV, the state’s Republican Party Treasurer. Here he is making the announcement of his candidacy in front of the stern visage of the former Kluxer. I’ve added a caption for effect:

“ALL NIGRAS WILL KNEEL BEFORE ME”

By the way, if I were Hiram, I’d drop that “IV” from the end of his name. Most of those good simple folk from West Virginia look at that moniker and think immediately of the snobby kid from the big house on the hill outside of town. Best do a little back slappin’ and “grinnin’ like a possum” if you’re going to make any headway with the good people of the Mountaineer state.

Mark Noonan of Blogs for Bush gives us just the right amount of outrage:

This is an un-American outrage; we shouldn’t be waiting for an election to get rid of Byrd, we should be impeaching him! And every government official, elected or otherwise, who had a hand in approving the creation of this abomination. That statue should be ripped down today; as our ancestors once upon a time ripped down the icons of living political leaders who taxed and oppressed our people.

Mark, as usual, has hit the nail on the head. It’s unseemly for us to immortalize sitting politicians. Makes us look like a banana republic or worse, a decrepit relic from the cold war Soviet Union where we got used to seeing pictures of a young, vigorous Brezhnev all over Moscow while the real thing was wasting away to mummyhood.

I don’t know though…I think the Senator looks pretty good, very dignified. But, what’s he doing with his left hand? At least he’s got it in his own pocket; we’re pretty used to having it in ours.

Yesterday was the second anniversery of the fall of Bagdhad. Radical Shi’ite cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr took advantage of the occasion to put on a show for the western media while also demonstrating a little of his street cred:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 9 - Tens of thousands of Iraqis marked the second anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein by marching here in the capital on Saturday to demand the withdrawal of American forces. Meanwhile, one of the most lethal insurgent groups warned Iraqis against joining the army or the police force.

Most protesters were followers of Moktada al-Sadr, the rebel Shiite cleric who has led several armed uprisings against American forces but who has recently begun to take part in democratic politics.

Despite the symbolism of the day, the rest of Baghdad was mostly quiet. The demonstration was peaceful, and far fewer people took part than the one million Mr. Sadr’s aides had predicted. Representatives of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a leading group of Sunni clerics that has expressed sympathy for the guerrilla insurgency, said its followers had taken part in the march.

In fact, there was another demonstration in Iraq. You know…the one you didn’t hear about.

Iraqis take to the streets on the second anniversary of the liberation of Baghdad. Iraqi government declared it as national day, the day Iraq was freed from Saddam’s barbaric rule. Many of the banners call for the Trial of Saddam and his gang. Other banners condemn terrorist and terrorism. Al-Sadr (who received no seats in the current parliament, because very few voted for him) is taking this opportunity to call for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq. His request is counter to what the elected government is asking for.

HT: Powerline)

A couple of interesting points: First, as the Powerline correspondent points out, the holy Sheik didn’t win a single vote in parliament. Not one. Any political clout he has is negative in that he only has the power to destroy, not build. And the Iraqi people are aware of that which is why he fell a little short of his guarantee of a million man march:

The protest in Baghdad’s famous Firdos Square was the largest anti-American demonstration since the U.S.-led invasion, but the turnout was far less than the 1 million called for by radical Shi’ite cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr.

“I do not accept having occupation forces in my country,” said protester Ali Feleih Hassan, 35. “No one accepts this. I want them out. They have been here for two years, and now they have to set a timetable for their withdrawal

Something that went completely over the head of the reporter is that Mr. Hassan is not threatening to kill, maim, behead, or otherwise harm American soldiers. He wants us to set a “timetable for withdrawal”!

That’s the best kind of progress.

Also, the holy Sheik’s demonstration featured all sorts of carefully made and very artistic signs. What made me notice them was that they were all in English. Do you think that had anything to do with the fact that the demonstration was crawling with western reporters? I knew you’d think that.

Conversely, all the signs at the pro-liberation rally were in Arabic. What does that tell you? Either none of the thousands of Iraqi’s supporting liberation speak English or they were more concerned about getting a point across to their own countrymen rather than lefty moonbats in the US.

Not to be outdone in the anti-Americanism, the moonbats at the Democratic Underground just about had an orgasm looking at all the pretty pictures of American flags burning and signs (again, in English) comparing Bush to Hitler and Saddam:

Here’s a sampling of their “thinking” on the subject:

The effigies should all have bloody hands

In Iraq they (women) used to be more emancipated than in most Muslim countries. (And don’t forget the kites!)

I long for the 60s and REAL news with Walter…(REAL???)

THIS is what DEMOCRACY looks like! Hot Damn!

YES!! The Linkage of Bush, Blair AND Saddam is brilliant! That needs to be shown more often!

Very slowly, Iraq is learning what a democracy is. If al Sadr can turn out 100,000 people good for him. Now let’s see him translate that into votes. Only then will any of his protests carry any weight with the Iraqi people. Along with these demonstrations, the Iraqi’s also made good progress toward forming a national unity government this week. All in all, two years after the fact, the Iraqi’s are proving that they have what it takes to make their own democracy and not have one imposed on them from the outside by the United States.

Sorry, but the comment function seems to be on the fritz. There’s no way that message about changing browsers should be coming up. If you’d like to make a comment, click the “contact” link above and send me an email.

Trackbacks are working normally.

I’ll post it as a comment as soon as I get this mess straightened out.

Superhawk

This just in from Blogs for Terri:

April 09, 2005
BREAKING NEWS: Mae is out of the hospice
Just received telephone call (3:00 PM ET) from Ken Mullinax, nephew of Mae.

Terri saves another life!

Followed by this email:
THANKS TO THE SUPPORT OF ALL OF THE FRIENDS OF TERRI, MY AUNT MAE MAGOUIRK HAS BEEN AIR LIFTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM MEDICAL CENTER … and receiving IV fluids, nourishment and some of the finest medical care available in the United States! Praise be the name of the Lord GOD… Thanks to Terri’s friends… It would NEVER ever have been possible without bloggers who love life , and the truth!! I am racing from my home to UAB now and will type a detailed update after I see my Aunt Mae! Thanks guys, your calls, emails, blogs and prayers did it ALL! I so love you guys! Ken Mullinax, nephew of Mae

End email

IT IS NOT OVER YET - THE OPPOSITION IS STILL TRYING TO GET HER BACK TO THE HOSPICE - SO KEEP FIGHTING BLOGGERS AND READERS!

It’s unbelievable that her granddaughter is still trying to get her back in the hospice. What’s worrisome to me is that anyone with a heart condition who’s denied fluids and nourishment for 10 days may be beyond saving; in which case I can just hear the proponents of euthanasia saying “See. She was dead anyway. All you did was prolong her agony.”

If, in fact, Mae was indeed lucid and conscious before her attempted murder (and to date the story is tracking remarkably like the original story that appeared in WND) the idea that by nearly dehydrating her before giving her any treatment you somehow prove a euthanasia point is ludicrous…and intellectually dishonest.

But that’s what happens in a utilitarian society. The circumstances of ones incapacity doesn’t matter. It’s up to all of us to justify our existence on a daily basis.

I think I’m gonna quit smoking. Who knows? The way these nuts work, they may figure because I’m going to die of cancer one day, they may as well help me along now.

No thanks. And I was only kidding about quitting smoking. They will have to drag that butt from my cold dead fingers.

“…. the real news is that there are hundreds and thousands of angels of death in our nation, working quietly “underground,” so to speak, and physicians and nurses know this is going on. The news is that many patients who are not actively dying are being killed, not cared for, in hospice agencies.” (Courtesy of The Hospice Patient Alliance, a hospice watchdog group)

She was born with CP…needed lots of care and special treatment. G-tube, Trach, central line, PIC lines, IV, non ambulatory, needed body casts just to hold her trunk up as she had no ribs…typical for a disabled kid. She was a sweety. She smiled and laughed and cried…she loved being held and cuddled and played with. She would use her little hands to touch us and toys and stuffed animals. She never had any behaviors. Her parents felt she wouldn’t want to live like this so they had us pull the tube and remove the trach and lines.I took care of her every day I was at work. It took her a whole longer to go than it took Terri. I cried and screamed about it. Almost quit the job over it. It was horrible.
(Email from Raven, medical professional and blogger)

Human beings are the only creatures on this planet who are capable of contemplating their own death. This quirk of evolution has allowed us to create a grand mystique around a perfectly natural biological process that otherwise would remain, as it does in the rest of the animal kingdom, an instinctual matter. The problem is, no one wants to either contemplate it very much or talk about it. Most of us take the attitude that “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Well, we better start thinking about it. As it stands now, the advocates for throwing away human beings as if they were nothing more than garbage bags full of rancid water and smelly old bones are winning. And the reason they’re winning is simple; very few people are paying attention.

Allow me to get the qualifiers front and center. End of life decisions are the most painful, personal, and wrenching choices a son, a daughter, a brother or sister, or any loved one has to make about another. I do not advocate nor would I support the intrusion of government in the decision making process for terminally ill patients with living wills that stipulate what kind of care is necessary. And it would be problematic for government to get involved in such decisions where there’s no living will but clearly stated wishes of the patient.

The problem isn’t with those terminally ill patients with families who, while devastated, support the decision of their loved one and try their best to ease their passing. Neither is the problem with most hospices who strive to fulfill their mandate to give palliative care and comfort to those whose time has come.

The problem as The Hospice Patient Alliance points out is what’s going on beneath the radar. It’s a problem involving dishonest hospices who lie to relatives by providing negligent care or deliberately allowing non-terminal patients into their facilities in contravention of the law and then either actively killing them or simply refusing to treat them.. It’s a problem with greedy, uncaring relatives who take advantage of their dying relation to speed the process along so as not to be inconvenienced any longer or garner an inheritance. And as I point out in the post below it’s a problem with a medical community that without debate or discussion, has decided to change the definition of human life itself.

There are literally thousands of cases every year in this country where human beings who are in relatively good health (many not in need of feeding tubes and in no need of any kind of life support) are simply dumped into hospices and either left to die or deliberately sent on their way with a lethal cocktail of drugs. Who are they?

They are the very old and infirm who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. They may have a chronic illness or be disabled. They may be indigent, or alone, or simply in the way. Or, they could be very young and very sick but capable of living a full life - if they had parents who could see past the disability and envision that kind of life. More likely, if they are young, they’re infants:

Nearly half the newborn babies who died in Flanders over a recent year-long period were helped to die by their doctors, a new study reported yesterday. Paediatricians in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium either discreetly stopped treating the babies or, in 17 cases, illegally killed them with lethal doses of painkillers.

(From the medical journal, The Lancet. HT: Michelle Malkin)

Judging by what happened to Raven’s three year old patient, I have no doubt that what goes in in Belgium occurs here as well.

Hospices may in fact be the major culprit in these crimes. The Hospice Patient Alliance is the only group that acts as a watchdog for that industry. They’ve been slowly gathering information on a horrifying trend involving the deliberate killing of patients by medical professionals who may have an agenda other than giving palliative care to a patient

It only takes one “bad apple” who has an agenda of euthanizing patients for involuntary euthanasias to occur. It is quite easy for such a nurse, physician or other staff to impose his or her own will on those most vulnerable. Falsifying the medical record has been reported in these types of cases. Staff may record that a patient with no pain actually had pain, thereby seeking to justify in the record the administration of high levels of narcotics. Families report patients being forced to take morphine and other narcotics when the patient directly refused to do so and stated they had no pain at all. Those “bad apples” with an agenda can tarnish the image of an otherwise excellent hospice program, and devastate the lives of the families whose loved ones they euthanize without permission.

It’s important, I believe, to point out that these medical professionals work with dying people on a daily basis and may in fact see themselves as “angels of mercy” rather than cold blooded killers. They may consider what they’re doing as a service to society. Here’s the leading medical ethics expert in Great Britain:

Britain’s leading medical ethics expert has suggested that the frail and elderly should consider suicide to stop them becoming a financial burden on their families and society.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, she said: “I know I’m not really allowed to say it, but one of the things that would motivate me [to die] is I couldn’t bear hanging on and being such a burden on people.

“In other contexts, sacrificing oneself for one’s family would be considered good. I don’t see what is so horrible about the motive of not wanting to be an increasing nuisance.

“If I went into a nursing home it would be a terrible waste of money that my family could use far better.”

In the past, I’ve been accused of being off base when talking about a “slippery slope” when it comes to end of life issues. My critics have been correct. We are not on a slippery slope and I apologize.

We’ve already fallen off a cliff. And the hell of it is, no one is listening as we fall to the ground below screaming in anguish.

UPDATE

Paul at Wizbang has a great update including a link to another story in the local paper.

Proving that great minds think alike, Hyscience has a post up entitled “The Hospice Industry’s Dark Agenda: Are Hospices Enabling Euthanasia?”

The Captain trains all 120 guns on the issue adding a bit of much needed blosphere weight to the supporters of Mae Magourik. And he certainly doesn’t pull any punches:

No, the lesson we should have taken from the Schiavo case is that our courts and our society has taken a utilitarian view of human life, one that measures value by the scale of the young and healthy. Beth Gaddy asked, “Who would want to live like this?” According to Ora Mae’s own living will, she would — and no enlightened society should presume to end Magouirk’s life in defiance of that wish. Boyd’s action in probate court — an odd place to get this kind of judgment for a living person — shows not so much a judicial bias towards utilitarianism, but a reflection of the utilitarianism that pervades Western societies as a whole. Euthanasia of the willing has led to euthanasia of the uncertain, and now in Magouirk’s case, euthanasia of the completely unwilling.

Utilitarianism or “what have you done for me lately.” Can you envision a day when people are asked to justify their own existence? I can.

The above question was posed by Significant Otherhawk as we sat with mouths agape reading about another family member who wishes to put a “loved one” out of their misery and let them move on to “a better place.” Only this time, there’s a slight twist to the tale: The person in question doesn’t want to die. In fact, if this account can be believed, she specifically requested that she not have the feeding tube removed in a written, living will:

In a situation recalling the recent death of Terri Schiavo in Florida, an 81-year-old widow, denied nourishment and fluids for nearly two weeks, is clinging to life in a hospice in LaGrange, Ga., while her immediate family fights desperately to save her life before she dies of starvation and dehydration.

Mae Magouirk was neither terminally ill, comatose nor in a “vegetative state,” when Hospice-LaGrange accepted her as a patient about two weeks ago upon the request of her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, 36, an elementary school teacher

Also upon Gaddy’s request and without prior legal authority, since March 28 Hospice-LaGrange has denied Magouirk normal nourishment or fluids via a feeding tube through her nose or fluids via an IV. She has been kept sedated with morphine and ativan, a powerful tranquillizer.

The dehydration is being done in defiance of Magouirk’s specific wishes, which she set down in a “living will,” and without agreement of her closest living next-of-kin…

But hey…let’s not start talking about a slippery slope here. That just wouldn’t do. That would upset all those people who just last week were laughing and deriding those of us who talked about any such nonsense. Why, the very idea of a “culture of death” was condemned as pure hyperbole. And yet…

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. That’s the point isn’t it? Very soon, these kinds of things will become routine, their ability to shock and revolt will have been wrung out of us by sheer repetition. And then it will be too late. Because what’s happening in this country is nothing less than a small cadre of non-conspiratorial but like minded scientists, ethicists, doctors, and lawyers seeking a redefinition of what constitutes human life.

It’s not enough anymore for someones heart to beat. It’s not enough that blood flow through ones veins. It’s not enough for a human to be able to breathe on their own or have the function of other vital organs like kidneys or liver. It apparently isn’t enough that the individual in question is lucid, conscious, in a non-vegetative state and not have any kind of terminal illness.

All it takes is a granddaughter who thinks like this:

“Grandmama is old and I think it is time she went home to Jesus,” Gaddy told Magouirk’s brother and nephew, McLeod and Ken Mullinax. “She has glaucoma and now this heart problem, and who would want to live with disabilities like these?”

As monstrous as the rationale given by the granddaughter sounds, the outrage being committed here and elsewhere in the United States is not by confused, grieving, or even inconvenienced or greedy relatives; the crime against human dignity here is being committed by a medical community who has decided that their ever narrowing definition of what “life” is has gone beyond the simple mechanics of how the human body works and entered a metaphysical realm that used to be reserved for priests, shamans, rabbis, and philosophers.

In short, they see themselves as a new strata of healers, a class of medical High Priests whose knowledge and experience regarding human health are now augmented by insight into the mysteries of consciousness itself. They are aided and abetted by ethicists that justify their actions, scientists who support their conclusions, lawyers who keep the legal ground from turning into quicksand beneath their feet, and a certain segment of the population that puts their faith in the ability of humans to glean eternal truth from empirical observation.

I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know if there necessarily is an answer. All I know is that this case and the thousands of other similar cases that occur every year in this country amount to nothing less than a recipe for disaster. Somehow, we’ve got to regain control of this runaway euthanasia train before our outrage is replaced by a shrug and our passions are replaced by a deadening of wonder at the miracle of life itself.

UPDATE:

This issue has literally exploded across the blogosphere with my blog buddies from The Wide Awakes leading the way.

Cao has a great round up of immediate reaction. In the coming days, go to Cao’s site for the latest.

Cathouse Chat has a link to an audio interview with Mae Magourik’s nephew - OUTRAGEOUS!

Raven at And Rightly So is a medical professional who has witnessed this sort of thing first hand. More on Raven tomorrow.

Make sure you hit T.J.’s excellent news blog NIF (News-Interesting-Funny) first thing in the morning for the latest.

Ace, a notorious skeptic regarding slippery slope arguments, thinks “The Death Express” is starting to roll.

Trey at Jackson’s Junction asks a good question; where’s the outrage from the people who let Terri die because it was her wish to do so? So far…silence.

Junkyard Blog is all over the story with some good updates.

Tha Anchoress has words of outrage…and caution.

Paul at Wizbang is digging and found some local reports on the issue, which tend to support the facts as reported originally by WMD. Hey! But remember, there is no slippery slope…right?

Mark at Conservative Revolution asks “You Think Your Living Will Means Something?”

Civilization Calls has joined the fray.

John Hawkins at Right Wing News is cautious.

Jared at Truth Quante-Fied has some great thoughts.

Straight up with Sherri has some addresses and phone numbers of people you can contact to help. (Hat Tip: Tom at Hamstermotor)

The Watcher’s Council’s vote this week featured some excellent posts from both Council and non-Council members. But when the dust cleared, yours truly came out on top in the Council category for my post on the pope’s death “Taming the Whirlwinds of History.” :

John Paul’s alliance with the Anglo-Americans was never set down on paper and coordination was superficial at best. But where Reagan and Thatcher’s hard-headed actions to defeat Soviet Communism stopped, the Pope’s moral authority took root and turned the tide toward people power by giving legitimacy to the aspirations for freedom so longed for by so many in that captive part of the world.

In short, Pope John Paul II gave a final answer to Josef Stalin’s contemptuous question when conflict with the Catholic Church in Russia seemed unavoidable. “How many divisions does the Pope have?” Stalin asked. This Pope could have told him he not only had the heavenly host of angels on his side but the millions of hearts and minds of people that yearned to breathe free, ready to march at his command.

There was a tie for second among 4 other Council blogs. And my favorite of those was submitted by Alpha Patriot entitled “Moving Melancholy.”

Second, I have evidently reached that age in which placing things in a box is like packing away a lifetime of memories. And nothing has brought that on more than putting away my oldest and dearest friends — my books. Mostly tattered paperbacks, some read so many times that pages threaten to detach from the binding with every turn.

The books that molded me and are as much a part of me as any real experience. A hefty collection of Heinlein and Asimov (some of which are replacements because the first copies really did fall apart from too much use). A translation of War Commentaries of [Julius] Ceaser. The entire Hornblower series by C. S. Forrester. Helter Skelter. Herbert’s Dune. 1984. A Brave New World. Even a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook.

The non-Council winner this week was Polipundit for their excellent analysis of the recently released report by the Commission investigating intelligence failures in finding WMD in Iraq, “WMD - or How W Made a Difference:”

Now, one might believe that writing a phone-book sized report shows the diligence these ten members displayed in their effort. On closer review, however, the tome is largely a self-serving buffet, something for everybody. The Left has been quick to help themselves to large slices of the part where the Commission declared the Intelligence effort before the Iraq War “one of the most public - and most damaging - intelligence failures in recent American history.” (page 3 of the report, page 19 printout) The angry mob that is American Liberalism has spent the past week trying to twist that statement into an indictment of the Bush Administration. The Commission, however, also said “we recognize that other reasonable observers could come to a different conclusion” (page 7 of the report, page 23 printout), a vague acknowledgment that they didn’t prove their case, but just printed out a wish list of what they want.

And finally, there was a three way tie for second with the post from Powerline entitled “The Pulitzer Prize for Felony Murder” being my favorite:

So the AP admitted that its photographer was “tipped off” by the terrorists. The only quibble asserted by the AP was that the photographer expected only a “demonstration,” not a murder. So the terrorists wanted to be photographed carrying out the murder, to sow more terror in Iraq and to demoralize American voters. That’s why they tipped off the photographer, and that’s why they dragged the two election workers from their car, so they could be shot in front of the AP’s obliging camera. And the AP was happy to cooperate with the terrorists in all respects…