What ever happened to "death with dignity?"

I love Nietzsche: "Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose."

Today the Supreme Court voted NOT to hear yet another appeal of Terri Schiavo's right to die - I'm sure she thought that if it happened, it would be done with dignity. But the Republicans (nah, that's not true. Five house GOP'ers objected)sensing another opportunity to demonize anyone who doesn't think like them, leaped on poor Ms. Schiavo like a pack of ravenous dogs that they are.

As Herr Karl Rove would say: keep the message simple. And so it was: we will do whatever we have to do to preserve this woman's life. Life, hardly.

But, oops, something ran afoul in their attempt to claim the high moral ground. A CBS News poll yesterday found that 82 percent of the public was opposed to Congress and the president intervening in this case. And get this: 74 percent thought it was all about politics.

The president, who couldn't be dragged outdoors to talk about the more than a hundred thousand people who died in the horrific tsunami, was willing to be dragged out of bed to sign a bill about one woman his base had fixated on. As George, who never ordered an execution that he didn't like, said, "we err on the side of life." But with the new polls, the White House seemed to shrink back a bit. May they erred.

If you are looking for someone to really blame, start with Tom DeLay. Bill Frist is a close second. Mr. DeLay, the poster child for ethical abuse, wanted to show that he is still a favorite of conservatives. Dr. Frist rediagnosed Ms. Schiavo's condition by video. Now that is a doctor I would select if I had a small problem. He could even give you a diagnosis out on the golf course or at home with plasma screen.

Bottomline, Republicans easily abandoned their cherished principles of individual privacy and states' rights when their personal ambitions came into play. You almost always can predict that they will do so. But what saddens me is the incredible numbers of Democrats who slunk away and did nothing in this whole sorry matter. With the Constitution being thrown around like some discared kleenex, Hillary was missing in action, as were most other Democrats.

Herr Bush and the GOP Brownshirts taken to task

From the Editorial Page of the New York Times:A Blow to the Rule of Law

Published: March 22, 2005

If you are in a "persistent vegetative state" and there is a dispute about whether to keep you alive, your case will probably go no further than state court - unless you are Terri Schiavo. President Bush signed legislation yesterday giving Ms. Schiavo's parents a personal right to sue in federal court. The new law tramples on the principle that this is "a nation of laws, not of men," and it guts the power of the states. When the commotion over this one tragic woman is over, Congress and the president will have done real damage to the founders' careful plan for American democracy.

Ms. Schiavo's case presents heart-wrenching human issues, and difficult legal ones. But the Florida courts, after careful deliberation, ruled that she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means in her current state, and ordered her feeding tube removed. Ms. Schiavo's parents, who wanted the tube to remain, hoped to get the Florida Legislature to intervene, but it did not do so.

That should have settled the matter. But supporters of Ms. Schiavo's parents, particularly members of the religious right, leaned heavily on Congress and the White House to step in. They did so yesterday with the new law, which gives "any parent of Theresa Marie Schiavo" standing to sue in federal court to keep her alive.

This narrow focus is offensive. The founders believed in a nation in which, as Justice Robert Jackson once wrote, we would "submit ourselves to rulers only if under rules." There is no place in such a system for a special law creating rights for only one family. The White House insists that the law will not be a precedent. But that means that the right to bring such claims in federal court is reserved for people with enough political pull to get a law passed that names them in the text.

The Bush administration and the current Congressional leadership like to wax eloquent about states' rights. But they dropped those principles in their rush to stampede over the Florida courts and Legislature. The new law doesn't miss a chance to trample on the state's autonomy and dignity. There are a variety of technical legal doctrines the federal courts use to show deference to state courts, like "abstention" and "exhaustion of remedies." The new law decrees that in Ms. Schiavo's case, these well-established doctrines simply will not apply.

Republicans have traditionally championed respect for the delicate balance the founders created. But in the Schiavo case, and in the battle to stop the Democratic filibusters of judicial nominations, President Bush and his Congressional allies have begun to enunciate a new principle: the rules of government are worth respecting only if they produce the result we want. It may be a formula for short-term political success, but it is no way to preserve and protect a great republic.

Schiavo

George W. Bush values life.

"Democrats and Republicans in Congress came together last night to give Terri Schiavo's parents another opportunity to save their daughter's life," Mr. Bush told the audience. "This is a complex case with serious issues, but in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to always err on the side of life."

Of course, to err on the side of life when it comes to executions. On several instances as Governor of Texas, he could have done so. But, the opportunity was there and he failed.

What really matters . . .

The Democrats' mistake was in thinking that a disastrous war, national bankruptcy, erosion of civil liberties, corporate takeover of government, environmental destruction, squandering of economic and moral leadership in the world, and the systematic lying of the Bush Administration would be of concern to the electorate.

The Republicans correctly saw that the chief concern of the electorate was to keep gay couples from having an abortion.

War Creates Criminals, Enough Said

When you put young men and women in combat situations, do not provide them the equipment they need or the backup support, then the net result is they often become what the military want them to become: killers.

The investigation continues, but it will be the sad sacks and doughboys who will be brought to trial - not the leaders who put them in this unteneable situation. As in Vietnam, the man at the top is as responsible for My Lai events as much as the soldiers who perpetrate them.

War Criminal: Lyndon Johnson and Bob McNamara

War Criminal: George Bush and Rummy

No one ever learns from history. We all think that "this time will be different."

Thucydides wrote about this. The Athenians too eventually resorted to mass murders and killings. They became as evil as the Spartans, over time.

U.S. Military Says 26 Inmate Deaths May Be Homicide
By DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: March 16, 2005


ASHINGTON, March 15 - At least 26 prisoners have died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 in what Army and Navy investigators have concluded or suspect were acts of criminal homicide, according to military officials.

The number of confirmed or suspected cases is much higher than any accounting the military has previously reported. A Pentagon report sent to Congress last week cited only six prisoner deaths caused by abuse, but that partial tally was limited to what the author, Vice Adm. Albert T. Church III of the Navy, called "closed, substantiated abuse cases" as of last September.

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The new figure of 26 was provided by the Army and Navy this week after repeated inquiries. In 18 cases reviewed by the Army and Navy, investigators have now closed their inquiries and have recommended them for prosecution or referred them to other agencies for action, Army and Navy officials said. Eight cases are still under investigation but are listed by the Army as confirmed or suspected criminal homicides, the officials said.

Only one of the deaths occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, officials said, showing how broadly the most violent abuses extended beyond those prison walls and contradicting early impressions that the wrongdoing was confined to a handful of members of the military police on the prison's night shift.

Among the cases are at least four involving Central Intelligence Agency employees that are being reviewed by the Justice Department for possible prosecution. They include a killing in Afghanistan in June 2003 for which David Passaro, a contract worker for the C.I.A., is now facing trial in federal court in North Carolina.

Human rights groups expressed dismay at the number of criminal homicides and renewed their call for a Sept. 11-style inquiry into detention operations and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. "This number to me is quite astounding," said James D. Ross, senior legal adviser for Human Rights Watch in New York. "This just reflects an overall failure to take seriously the abuses that have occurred."

Pentagon and Army officials rebutted that accusation. Lawrence Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said that he was not aware that the Defense Department had previously accounted publicly for criminal homicides among the detainee deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq, but insisted that military authorities were vigorously pursuing each case.

"I have not seen the numbers collected in the way you described them, but obviously one criminal homicide is one too many," said Mr. Di Rita, who noted that American forces had held more than 50,000 detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past three years.

Army officials said the killings took place both inside and outside detention areas, including at the point of capture in often violent battlefield conditions. "The Army will investigate every detainee death both inside and outside detention facilities," said Col. Joseph Curtin, a senior Army spokesman. "Simply put, detainee abuse is not tolerated, and the Army will hold soldiers accountable. We are taking action to prosecute those suspected of abuse while taking steps now to train soldiers how to avoid such situations in the future."

In his report last week, Admiral Church concluded that the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan had been the result primarily of a breakdown of discipline, not flawed policies or misguided direction from commanders or Pentagon officials. But he cautioned that his conclusions were "based primarily on the information available to us as of Sept. 30, 2004," and added, "Should additional information become available, our conclusions would have to be considered in light of that information."

In addition to the criminal homicides, 11 cases involving prisoner deaths at the hands of American troops are now listed as justifiable homicides that should not be prosecuted, Army officials said. Those cases included killings caused by soldiers in suppressing prisoner riots in Iraq, they said. Other prisoners have died in captivity of natural causes, the military has found.