 |
Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms |
|
|
|
March 23: If only the Bush administration, Republican-dominated Congress and the right-wingnuts devoted as much energy to stopping the genocide in Darfur as they have to keeping Terri Schiavo alive, they would solve more international problems and gain some respect too. But this issue isn't about respect for life; it's about deflecting attention away from the same international problems that conservatives have failed to address. Appeasing the powerful religious lobby groups that blindly reelected Bush came with strings attached, and now their loyalty is being rewarded. I suspect the Republican leadership knew of the legal outcome before passing emergency legislation and will use Schiavo's death as an excuse to replace judges seen as too liberal.
Update! It looks like I was right. Here is a juicy quote from the Republican pillar of decorum and ethics, Tom DeLay:
[F]or many years [Congress] has shirked its responsibility to hold the judiciary accountable. No longer. We will look at an arrogant, out of control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at the Congress and president when given jurisdiction to hear this case anew and look at all the facts... The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behaviour, but not today.
According to Tim Harper from the Toronto Star's Washington Bureau, "DeLay is also fighting a litany of allegations of ethics violations and is the target of third-party TV ads alleging he used the Schiavo case to deflect attention from his own problems."
It's interesting that Bush and Delay's comments about respecting a "culture of life" failed to include providing cheap anti-AIDS drugs for Africans, abolishing capital punishment or ending the Iraqi Occupation.
Top
