(I'll be surprised if this gets posted but ya can't blame someone for trying!)
1st item, that should be pretty obvious: It's NOT ABOUT CLINTON! He's GONE! This isn't about Bosnia, IT'S ABOUT IRAQ! They are in different parts of the globe!
2 - it has been shown, beyond any discernible doubt that the information Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Powell, Rice, etc, etc, etc provided, intentionally misled our Congressional leadership AND the American People, and it continues!
3. this administration has cost the American people thousands of lives lost and irreparably damaged, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of sovereign Iraqi citizens who are far worse off now than prior to the invasion and All on willfully misleading information! This administration, and the Republican dominated Congress, at the time chose to believe Wolfowitz (you name one, you name them all!) over a 4 Star General who actually knew what he was talking about (in case you forgot, his name is General Shinseky. I'll find the clip if you need me to)!
4. There are soooo many examples such as these regarding an amoral, untrustworthy, and criminal administration that if there isn't some light going off somewhere in your head (collectively speaking), then it's so buried (and you can guess where I'm thinking), that it is literally Impossible for you to see any light!
This administration is more deserving of impeachment and international criminal investigation than any previous administration that I know of!
It is a travesty that our elected representatives cannot see the obvious and hide behind this delusional 'moral majority' (you know, the actual minority!) and not do what they were elected to do and represent not only the majority of the general population but also THE CONSTITUTION!
Every life lost or maimed has more value than a few men reaping billions of dollars, and continuing to do so. And guess what, most of them are residing in the White House (or close by)!
And 'immediate pull out' is not even an issue. It would take several months to get out of there with any staff and equipment safely. Remember, that's what kicked our ass in the first place: not enough military to 'safeguard the arsenals' (excluding WMD, BECAUSE THERE WEREN'T ANY)! That's when we needed the surge! Too late now, and clearly not enough. This withdrawal will definitely not be Burlington Northern style ('we pull out on time'!). It will happen eventually, the Big Question is WHEN?
Lest I go on, I rest my case for the present.
(edited from original post on link site. I can you know, it's my blog and I'll do what I want to!)
Update - wow, they actually posted it! Read some of the comments and feel my pain!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Here's What I think!
Russ Feingold, you state in an email produced by the Progressive Patriots Fund supporting censorship: “at this time I do not believe it is in our nation’s best interest to put important issues facing our country on the back burner to go through months and months of a divisive impeachment process.”
I say “BULLSHIT”! There is no business More Important than relieving this criminal executive administration of their duties ASAP!
I’m not against censorship, but I’m tired of the Democrats making excuses. Basically, if the Obstructionist Rethuglicans don’t want to vote to end discussion regarding impeachment and vote for impeachment and conviction then ya’ll can stay there until they do!
Our soldiers aren’t getting any time off and until they’re back home safely from this misbegotten war due to Bush et. al. purposefully and negligently mislead the American people, you shouldn’t be getting time off either!
That’s what we elected you to do! With the evidence so flagrantly apparent, this should really be a no-brainer! Time is Now, Russ and the Rest of our Senators and Representatives elected to serve US!
I’m thinking that the majority would at least like to see Cheney go. That would be an excellent start!
I say “BULLSHIT”! There is no business More Important than relieving this criminal executive administration of their duties ASAP!
I’m not against censorship, but I’m tired of the Democrats making excuses. Basically, if the Obstructionist Rethuglicans don’t want to vote to end discussion regarding impeachment and vote for impeachment and conviction then ya’ll can stay there until they do!
Our soldiers aren’t getting any time off and until they’re back home safely from this misbegotten war due to Bush et. al. purposefully and negligently mislead the American people, you shouldn’t be getting time off either!
That’s what we elected you to do! With the evidence so flagrantly apparent, this should really be a no-brainer! Time is Now, Russ and the Rest of our Senators and Representatives elected to serve US!
I’m thinking that the majority would at least like to see Cheney go. That would be an excellent start!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Senators wage war of words over war in Iraq
From the RCJ and the ensuing discussion in Rapid Reply. It's good to see more people speaking out against this war and the obstructionist activity of the Republican Party. John Thune does not representative of a thoughtful, quality legislator. But he's showing his colors, like a currently typical Republican, that he will engage in obstructionist activities in the face of the Majority of Americans who want change in the conduct of our government.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Olbermann's Special Comment: Resign!
But demand your congressional leaders seek impeachment and conviction!
Another Way to Voice Your Opinion
Clicking on the title will take you to a MoveOn.org's e-petition site to demand Cheney's cooperation of a subpeona.
MARCY WHEELER GIVES THE FACTS ABOUT LIBBY ON HARDBALL
Additional perspectives! This story, and the criminals who occupy the main characters, should NOT die down!
This deserves NO LESS THAN IMPEACHMENT!
To Ms. Herseth-Sandlin and Mr. Thune
I am writing, again, to ask for your support in upholding the laws of the United States of America, re-establishing Habeas Corpus, and protecting our constitutional republic!
This can be relatively easy to do by simply undertaking Articles of Impeachment and Conviction by OUR CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP!
This administration has resisted/obstructed legitimate investigations in practically every department and circumstance! Even upon Scooter Libby’s conviction by his peers (you remember, US CITIZENS!) and failure of appeal, his prison sentence is commuted! With the common knowledge of their misrepresentation, ‘lack of documentation’, or the outright refusal to remit documentation, I fail to understand how you can not justify IMMEDIATE ACTION?
They have been less than reasonably ‘transparent’ in their conduct, have manipulated and/or used knowingly fraudulent documents/information to justify their inhumanely destructive decisions (oh, if this weren’t so dramatically true! Abu Graib, Guantanamo, waterboarding, invading a sovereign nation, killing thousands of American Military Citizens and Iraqi citizens), or followed the ‘advice’ of CONVICTED CRIMINALS (in particular, Ahmed Chalabi who, by the way, was an Iraqi refugee for 40+ years. Remember, he’s the guy that was convicted in absentia in Jordon for embezzlement)!
This administration has knowingly violated the confidence of federal agents, terminated dedicated AG’s without legal justification or in direct violation of our laws, and currently obstructing justice in both situations! And we haven’t even begun to discuss the tragedies that have transpired for thousands citizens here that they have neglected (ummm, that might be New Orleans, for example)!
What is it going to take? Most of you are trained attorneys!
Please! Please! Please! Uphold the position you were elected to serve! This is NOT merely a political crisis- it’s NOT about being a Democrat or a Republican! IT IS ABOUT REPRESENTING THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS AND OUR CONSTITUTION! AND NOT JUST DURING THE ‘ELECTION YEAR’! You must ensure that EVERYONE abides by the laws we have established! This is about Principal not Politics!
This can be relatively easy to do by simply undertaking Articles of Impeachment and Conviction by OUR CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP!
This administration has resisted/obstructed legitimate investigations in practically every department and circumstance! Even upon Scooter Libby’s conviction by his peers (you remember, US CITIZENS!) and failure of appeal, his prison sentence is commuted! With the common knowledge of their misrepresentation, ‘lack of documentation’, or the outright refusal to remit documentation, I fail to understand how you can not justify IMMEDIATE ACTION?
They have been less than reasonably ‘transparent’ in their conduct, have manipulated and/or used knowingly fraudulent documents/information to justify their inhumanely destructive decisions (oh, if this weren’t so dramatically true! Abu Graib, Guantanamo, waterboarding, invading a sovereign nation, killing thousands of American Military Citizens and Iraqi citizens), or followed the ‘advice’ of CONVICTED CRIMINALS (in particular, Ahmed Chalabi who, by the way, was an Iraqi refugee for 40+ years. Remember, he’s the guy that was convicted in absentia in Jordon for embezzlement)!
This administration has knowingly violated the confidence of federal agents, terminated dedicated AG’s without legal justification or in direct violation of our laws, and currently obstructing justice in both situations! And we haven’t even begun to discuss the tragedies that have transpired for thousands citizens here that they have neglected (ummm, that might be New Orleans, for example)!
What is it going to take? Most of you are trained attorneys!
Please! Please! Please! Uphold the position you were elected to serve! This is NOT merely a political crisis- it’s NOT about being a Democrat or a Republican! IT IS ABOUT REPRESENTING THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS AND OUR CONSTITUTION! AND NOT JUST DURING THE ‘ELECTION YEAR’! You must ensure that EVERYONE abides by the laws we have established! This is about Principal not Politics!
An Excellent Synopsis
What does our congressional leadership need?
Cheney Authorized Libby to Disclose Classified Documents, by Juan Cole.
Here are great analogies to provide a greater understanding to the 'common folk' who are confused!
Unimpeachably Impeachable
Interesting speculation here, and I quote:
Cheney Authorized Libby to Disclose Classified Documents, by Juan Cole.
Here are great analogies to provide a greater understanding to the 'common folk' who are confused!
Unimpeachably Impeachable
Interesting speculation here, and I quote:
The “underlying crime” of outing Valerie Plame Wilson had little to do with Her husband’s brilliant OP-ED piece exposing Cheney et.al. for leading us to war.. THAT was simply a bonus. The White House must have thought they woke up from a wet dream, when THAT little tidbit was thrown their way. Outing Valerie was necessary to go to war all right.. but it was not the Iraq war that this traitorous act was intended to facilitate.. No people it is the IRAN war that required the dissolution of Brewster-Jennings. Mojo
Obstruction of Justice, Republican/Bush Style
I needed to highlight this:
For all you Bushie defenders out there who keep averring that there was no underlying crime, try considering the facts, if you can (I know it's a challenge in BushWorld, but try.)-- VPW was covert under the IIPA. This has been corroborated by facts known about her activities that are in the public domain and by a letter to Congress from the Director of the CIA and by herself in her own sworn testimony. Fitzgerald also concluded that she was before proceeding with his investigation.
Additionally, many Bushies seem to be of the mistaken impression that no crime was committed b/c no one was prosecuted under the IIPA. However, a simple analogy puts the lie to this position: If one discovers a dead body of a woman, shall we say in the dining room at a place where there is a large gathering of people, and the body is face down with a large knife sticking out of the middle of her back. Would you say that no crime has been committed b/c you did not know who did it? Or, perhaps you do know, but cannot prove it. -- Is there no crime?
Well, of course there is, isn't there? And the lie that you keep attempting to spread, to your own detriment of credibility, is utterly obvious to anyone who has command of the facts of the situation surrounding the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson.
One more thing. While Armitage may indeed have been the one who spilled the beans to Novak, there was, as we know from the facts at the Libby trial and through other news accounts, a whispering campaign going on in the weeks before Novak's column ran where WH apparatchiks were meeting WITH REPORTERS and talking about VPW. We also know that Cheney speculated on the lie that made it into Novak's column about her sending her husband on the trip to Niger. This was false as has been testified to and reported previously. (Let alone the fact of the preposterousness of going to Niger on a "junket".) -- Armitage, a friend of Rove, incidentally, only happened to be the first, but by no means only leaker in this Case. So, these assertions that attempt to pin it all on Armitage are off-base, and untrue. Therefore the entire line of crap about "there was no underlying crime" is a bunch of tighty righty hoo-ha.
Of course most of us here already knew that, but it was time to reintroduce it b/c it still seems to keep reappearing.
No need to thank me -- I consider it a public service.
There's also a great conversation going on at Firedoglake
It is time to raise our voices!
Caveat: for those who bemoan that Joseph Wilson is the liar.
For all you Bushie defenders out there who keep averring that there was no underlying crime, try considering the facts, if you can (I know it's a challenge in BushWorld, but try.)-- VPW was covert under the IIPA. This has been corroborated by facts known about her activities that are in the public domain and by a letter to Congress from the Director of the CIA and by herself in her own sworn testimony. Fitzgerald also concluded that she was before proceeding with his investigation.
Additionally, many Bushies seem to be of the mistaken impression that no crime was committed b/c no one was prosecuted under the IIPA. However, a simple analogy puts the lie to this position: If one discovers a dead body of a woman, shall we say in the dining room at a place where there is a large gathering of people, and the body is face down with a large knife sticking out of the middle of her back. Would you say that no crime has been committed b/c you did not know who did it? Or, perhaps you do know, but cannot prove it. -- Is there no crime?
Well, of course there is, isn't there? And the lie that you keep attempting to spread, to your own detriment of credibility, is utterly obvious to anyone who has command of the facts of the situation surrounding the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson.
One more thing. While Armitage may indeed have been the one who spilled the beans to Novak, there was, as we know from the facts at the Libby trial and through other news accounts, a whispering campaign going on in the weeks before Novak's column ran where WH apparatchiks were meeting WITH REPORTERS and talking about VPW. We also know that Cheney speculated on the lie that made it into Novak's column about her sending her husband on the trip to Niger. This was false as has been testified to and reported previously. (Let alone the fact of the preposterousness of going to Niger on a "junket".) -- Armitage, a friend of Rove, incidentally, only happened to be the first, but by no means only leaker in this Case. So, these assertions that attempt to pin it all on Armitage are off-base, and untrue. Therefore the entire line of crap about "there was no underlying crime" is a bunch of tighty righty hoo-ha.
Of course most of us here already knew that, but it was time to reintroduce it b/c it still seems to keep reappearing.
No need to thank me -- I consider it a public service.
There's also a great conversation going on at Firedoglake
It is time to raise our voices!
Caveat: for those who bemoan that Joseph Wilson is the liar.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons
Losing pollination capabilities does not bode well for our diets!
A personal, unassociated opinion though. Isn't it interesting that a segment of our population denies the current theories of science (ie global warming, age of the earth/universe) and yet clamors for scientific remedies/advances when faced with peril (medical, environmental, etc). They'll belittle scientific endeavors if the science does not support their unsubstantiated ideology but gluttonously enjoys the innumerable benefits scientific discovery has provided us.
A personal, unassociated opinion though. Isn't it interesting that a segment of our population denies the current theories of science (ie global warming, age of the earth/universe) and yet clamors for scientific remedies/advances when faced with peril (medical, environmental, etc). They'll belittle scientific endeavors if the science does not support their unsubstantiated ideology but gluttonously enjoys the innumerable benefits scientific discovery has provided us.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Question for Dennis Kucinich
From: Lisa W
To: Dennis Kucinich
Subject: 2004 Ohio Election Fraud?
Date: Tue, 2007-04-24 16:59
Dear Mr. Kucinich:
I was wondering what actions you might be taking in regards to what likely may have happened in your state. I refer to this blog entry from DailyKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/24/142611/673
By the way, although I support you on impeaching Dick Cheney, I ultimately believe that ALL of them should be impeached and ALL of those appointed by this administration should be as well.
Good luck, Dennis.
To: Dennis Kucinich
Subject: 2004 Ohio Election Fraud?
Date: Tue, 2007-04-24 16:59
Dear Mr. Kucinich:
I was wondering what actions you might be taking in regards to what likely may have happened in your state. I refer to this blog entry from DailyKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/24/142611/673
By the way, although I support you on impeaching Dick Cheney, I ultimately believe that ALL of them should be impeached and ALL of those appointed by this administration should be as well.
Good luck, Dennis.
How Media Mistakes Fueled the High Court Abortion Ruling
As Jane coins, "Death By Focus Group" at Firedoglake (just go to the website!), we have lost the sound, reasoned, non-biased, objective, and humanistic judgement of the Supreme Court.
This administration has so severely damaged our country; when will our 'elected' leadership begin to seriously engage in the impeachment process! I've learned to avoid saying "it can't get any worse; they've already done their damage" because it can, and usually does get worse unless you arrest the problem.
This administration has so severely damaged our country; when will our 'elected' leadership begin to seriously engage in the impeachment process! I've learned to avoid saying "it can't get any worse; they've already done their damage" because it can, and usually does get worse unless you arrest the problem.
Destroying our Constitution with a Thousand Cuts
Thanks to Jane at Firedoglake; her editorials rock! Maybe what we're seeing is man's inability to think objectively in light of their religious constitution. We would rather choose subscribing to a myth than treating each other with 'brotherly love' in reality. Jesus wouldn't have recognised it.
It's not just about someone being beholden to a living religious icon (the pope) but more about being beholden to an ideology progressively polluted by power hungry men to control the population.
It's not just about someone being beholden to a living religious icon (the pope) but more about being beholden to an ideology progressively polluted by power hungry men to control the population.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Schumer 4
Job well done, Senator Schumer; I couldn't agree with you more. Now, if he doesn't step down, is there an impeachment option?
Schumer 2
If Gonzales 'rejected the plan', then why was the plan implemented, and approved by Gonzales because it was 'his decision'?!
Many thanks to TPMTV for these videos!
Feingold 1
Isn't Al "Senior Leadership of the Department"? If it was his decision, did he not review the information to substantiate his decision? Obviously not!
Schumer 1
Show us the documents, then. Show us ALL of the documents, including e-mails!
Hoorah for Senator Schumer for directly confronting Al's gross incompetence!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Our Passive Approach to Mental Instability
This is my response to a local blog about the idea of having more people packing weapons to protect themselves from those like Cho. Here's the link: To Shoot or Not to Shoot http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/politicalblog/?p=2021
I don't know, but I'm not comforted by the thought of our young adults packing weapons; isn't that what we're trying to avoid with all of our metal detectors in schools and government buildings? For violence to beget violence, is based on choice. There are many other countries, societies, and cultures who do not need overabundant weaponry to maintain order.
Maybe one of the reasons is that we need to be more pro-active about intervening when someone is imbalanced. His lack of directly threatening others should not have discounted that he was a danger to himself by mentioning suicide. Sometimes people like to have company when they throw their proverbial 'life switch'.
Intervention can be implemented if one is a threat to THEMSELVES and/or others. When a person passes the threshold of sanity, we cannot accurately predict what their behavior will entail. Suicide nor mass murder is a reasonable option. Cho obviously exhibited anti-social behavior that others felt threatened, as indicated in MSNBC article: "Cho’s words, actions fit school shooting patternBehavior typically raises concerns long before the shooting starts" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18175525/).
This is about mental health and our lack of intervening. We can no longer remain passive about helping each other out in accordance to our health, both physical and psychological.
We, as a society, need to rethink the ACLU's victory in 1968 when it was determined to be a violation of a mental patient's rights under the argument of 'false imprisonment'. A 72 hour hold doesn't even begin to detox someone let alone quality rehabilitation for the multitude of mental derailments our society manifests.
I don't know, but I'm not comforted by the thought of our young adults packing weapons; isn't that what we're trying to avoid with all of our metal detectors in schools and government buildings? For violence to beget violence, is based on choice. There are many other countries, societies, and cultures who do not need overabundant weaponry to maintain order.
Maybe one of the reasons is that we need to be more pro-active about intervening when someone is imbalanced. His lack of directly threatening others should not have discounted that he was a danger to himself by mentioning suicide. Sometimes people like to have company when they throw their proverbial 'life switch'.
Intervention can be implemented if one is a threat to THEMSELVES and/or others. When a person passes the threshold of sanity, we cannot accurately predict what their behavior will entail. Suicide nor mass murder is a reasonable option. Cho obviously exhibited anti-social behavior that others felt threatened, as indicated in MSNBC article: "Cho’s words, actions fit school shooting patternBehavior typically raises concerns long before the shooting starts" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18175525/).
This is about mental health and our lack of intervening. We can no longer remain passive about helping each other out in accordance to our health, both physical and psychological.
We, as a society, need to rethink the ACLU's victory in 1968 when it was determined to be a violation of a mental patient's rights under the argument of 'false imprisonment'. A 72 hour hold doesn't even begin to detox someone let alone quality rehabilitation for the multitude of mental derailments our society manifests.
Not Our Finest Hour
http://scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2007/04/court_rules_att.html
With such sensitivity to this subject, and thinking about the possibility that the procedure is as described, I can't disagree with the ban. But this is not an insurmountable issue; though with the current Supreme Court, it very well may be. There are, however, more humane ways to resolved 'late term abortion' by calling it for what it is: premature, preterm induced labor and declaring the fetus DNR, especially if it has pronounced co-morbidities. The use of narcotic/sedative medication (versus physical "injury" to the fetus), is far more compassionate to alleviate struggling life.
The ultimate decision regarding this issue (besides it being a personal, confidential discussion between the patient [and legal associations] and her physician, is that the adult woman's risk of increased mortality be paramount in the decision. From my understanding, since I have no direct knowledge, 'late term abortion' is not about birthcontrol but preserving life AS WE KNOW IT, not as we predict it to be. The mother is present, the fetus is potential. By measure of rescuscitative means, should a fetus survive, with a reasonable POTENTIAL at descent quality of life, then the medical profession should intervene as they are trained to do. We need to be actually listening to those who have had this experience.
For example, this comes from JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/297/13/1412 with a broader article discussion at Firedoglake.com:
"…Over the next two days, the power of modern pharmaceuticals is unleashed in an attempt to quiet her uterus and save the twins. In reality, this attempt is focused on the twin who is fully contained in the uterus, since the one who is almost inside the vagina has no realistic chance of achieving viability. The efforts are valiant — these twins were conceived after 10 years of marriage — and the desire is strong to salvage as much of this pregnancy as possible….
Inducing labor before membranes have ruptured, or before there is a maternal indication such as infection, is technically an elective abortion. This hospital, like most hospitals in the metropolitan area in which they live, has a strict no-elective-abortion policy, which forbids her obstetricians from rupturing her membrances and initiating labor. Women who want elective abortions go to Planned Parenthood; the ones who want to deliver full-term babies go to hospitals; and so the woman andher husband are told they cannot exercise that option at this hospital. The two of them, recent transplants from California used to a less faith-based practice of medicine, are shocked by this. Nobody wants this pregnancy more than they, they argue. The sole reason they are doing this is because the risks outweigh the benefits. Does the hospital require emergence of a frank infection before intervention is permissible? Is this in keeping with the highest standards of practice in modern obstetrics? Her obstetricians are sympathetic but helpless. Finally, they come up with a plan. The sole hospital that does not have such an abortion policy is a university teaching hospital several miles away. Telephone calls are made, a direct admission is arranged, and the woman's husband drives her to the teaching hospital, where labor is induced. The twins are delivered the next day. They are stillborn.
You might wonder, reading this vignette, how I happen to know so many details about this case, or even whether this is a fictional teaching case that so bedevils medical students. The unfortunate truth is that this is real life: I am the husband in this story.
But the greater tragedy here, to my mind, is the straitjacket that a religious worldview imposes on the complexity inherent within clinical medicine. Our world sometimes presents us with situations that cannot be simplistically categorized as pro-choice or pro-life, and other patients across the nation will be faced with decisions like the ones we made on that fateful day.
This is why hospital policies that originate in religion rather than science can be unhealthy and unsafe. Personal religious beliefs can and should guide the lives of clinicians of faith. The extent to which they guide a clinician's professional life is the clinician's personal matter, and I hope that clinicians will choose specialties and practice settings that ensure that patients receive needed care regardless of the clinician's religious beliefs. However, the extent to which these beliefs guide hospital policy is a matter of concern to all of us, whether we are patients or clinicians. The extent to which the US medical establishment succeeds in circumscribing the circle of influence of religion-based medicine will determine the quality of health care that phsycians can offer their patients. Clearly, irrespective of what religion each of us belongs to, this is the very least that our patients deserve.". http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/04/18/consequences-2/#comments
The Supreme Court does NOT have sufficient qualifications to make a professional medical decision, and our competent, professional physicians should not be restricted in their practice to provide safe and competent medical care.
Addendum:
Another story to think about:
"One Woman's Late Term Abortion Story (a must read):
http://texaskaos.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3116
With such sensitivity to this subject, and thinking about the possibility that the procedure is as described, I can't disagree with the ban. But this is not an insurmountable issue; though with the current Supreme Court, it very well may be. There are, however, more humane ways to resolved 'late term abortion' by calling it for what it is: premature, preterm induced labor and declaring the fetus DNR, especially if it has pronounced co-morbidities. The use of narcotic/sedative medication (versus physical "injury" to the fetus), is far more compassionate to alleviate struggling life.
The ultimate decision regarding this issue (besides it being a personal, confidential discussion between the patient [and legal associations] and her physician, is that the adult woman's risk of increased mortality be paramount in the decision. From my understanding, since I have no direct knowledge, 'late term abortion' is not about birthcontrol but preserving life AS WE KNOW IT, not as we predict it to be. The mother is present, the fetus is potential. By measure of rescuscitative means, should a fetus survive, with a reasonable POTENTIAL at descent quality of life, then the medical profession should intervene as they are trained to do. We need to be actually listening to those who have had this experience.
For example, this comes from JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/297/13/1412 with a broader article discussion at Firedoglake.com:
"…Over the next two days, the power of modern pharmaceuticals is unleashed in an attempt to quiet her uterus and save the twins. In reality, this attempt is focused on the twin who is fully contained in the uterus, since the one who is almost inside the vagina has no realistic chance of achieving viability. The efforts are valiant — these twins were conceived after 10 years of marriage — and the desire is strong to salvage as much of this pregnancy as possible….
Inducing labor before membranes have ruptured, or before there is a maternal indication such as infection, is technically an elective abortion. This hospital, like most hospitals in the metropolitan area in which they live, has a strict no-elective-abortion policy, which forbids her obstetricians from rupturing her membrances and initiating labor. Women who want elective abortions go to Planned Parenthood; the ones who want to deliver full-term babies go to hospitals; and so the woman andher husband are told they cannot exercise that option at this hospital. The two of them, recent transplants from California used to a less faith-based practice of medicine, are shocked by this. Nobody wants this pregnancy more than they, they argue. The sole reason they are doing this is because the risks outweigh the benefits. Does the hospital require emergence of a frank infection before intervention is permissible? Is this in keeping with the highest standards of practice in modern obstetrics? Her obstetricians are sympathetic but helpless. Finally, they come up with a plan. The sole hospital that does not have such an abortion policy is a university teaching hospital several miles away. Telephone calls are made, a direct admission is arranged, and the woman's husband drives her to the teaching hospital, where labor is induced. The twins are delivered the next day. They are stillborn.
You might wonder, reading this vignette, how I happen to know so many details about this case, or even whether this is a fictional teaching case that so bedevils medical students. The unfortunate truth is that this is real life: I am the husband in this story.
But the greater tragedy here, to my mind, is the straitjacket that a religious worldview imposes on the complexity inherent within clinical medicine. Our world sometimes presents us with situations that cannot be simplistically categorized as pro-choice or pro-life, and other patients across the nation will be faced with decisions like the ones we made on that fateful day.
This is why hospital policies that originate in religion rather than science can be unhealthy and unsafe. Personal religious beliefs can and should guide the lives of clinicians of faith. The extent to which they guide a clinician's professional life is the clinician's personal matter, and I hope that clinicians will choose specialties and practice settings that ensure that patients receive needed care regardless of the clinician's religious beliefs. However, the extent to which these beliefs guide hospital policy is a matter of concern to all of us, whether we are patients or clinicians. The extent to which the US medical establishment succeeds in circumscribing the circle of influence of religion-based medicine will determine the quality of health care that phsycians can offer their patients. Clearly, irrespective of what religion each of us belongs to, this is the very least that our patients deserve.". http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/04/18/consequences-2/#comments
The Supreme Court does NOT have sufficient qualifications to make a professional medical decision, and our competent, professional physicians should not be restricted in their practice to provide safe and competent medical care.
Addendum:
Another story to think about:
"One Woman's Late Term Abortion Story (a must read):
http://texaskaos.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3116
Daily Kos: [UPDATED] Carol Lam, Alberto Gonzales, and the 19 Congressmen
Daily Kos: [UPDATED] Carol Lam, Alberto Gonzales, and the 19 Congressmen
I don't know if there's enough septic/sewer sucking services to clean up this corrupted filth. Practically everything this administration has touched has turned to s**t. What alchemists they are!
I don't know if there's enough septic/sewer sucking services to clean up this corrupted filth. Practically everything this administration has touched has turned to s**t. What alchemists they are!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)