That really is just obscene.

I think the husband was right when he said that it was all about the money with them.

Come to think of it, Jesus probably wouldn't be doing this.

This is what I've been saying all along. The Schindlers have had legal fees paid by religious and prolife organizations, Terri's medical care has been covered by Medicaid while the hospice where she has been living all these years has never charged them a dime. So what are they raising money for? Why did they set up a website to solicit "donations" to save Terri that was never affiliated with a non-profit organization? They are not accountable to anyone for how they use these "donations" because they are not governed by the IRS rules that 501(c)(3) organizations must follow.

I know they were penalized in Florida for not filing correctly to solicit contributions. I can only hope the IRS will be encouraged to investigate the Schindlers with as much vigor as they have investigated the NAACP. Something stinks in all of this.

I think the husband was right when he said that it was all about the money with them.

Exactly what Judge Greer said about these people in the court transcripts. The Schindlers really are the scum of the earth.

Let me know if you haven't seen the transcripts yet. I'll attach a link.

phidipides - please post link to transcripts.

This is the blog that has been following the case. Other transcropts are here.

This is a PDF of the transcript to which I referred.

Would we expect anything else from them or their pals?

I have come to the conclusion that this was never really about Terri, but about the Schindler's fundie beliefs and promoting the pro-life propaganda and agenda. They have used their disabled daughter or her maintained corpse (depending on your point of view) to do so. This is just a continuation of their little religious project. Placing the name up for sale will allow others in similar situations to continue the pro-life agenda and promote spectacles such as we have just seen.

The world of modern ghouls.

Can't say it upsets me too much.

This is the sort of thing that would show up on Jerry Springer's show if it weren't for all of the free media coverage, courtesy of the Springer, er, Republican Party.

(Yes - I know that Springer claims to be a Democrat!)

Viguerie says there are no facts just opinions. Well it is my opinion that he is just another blood sucking shill.

(Yes - I know that Springer claims to be a Democrat!)

Jerry Springer is a solid, dyed-in-the-wool Democrat. His contribution to the American culture of sleaze, though considerable, does nothing to detract from that.

Now that it has been firmly established that this issue was deliberately diversionary and a cynical maneuver by the GOP to further cheapen the modern political climate, can we stop talking about it?

Wht's bscn s wmn s ctlly bng mrdrd whl th psych dth clt flttrs wth ndgntn vr trvl sd sss.

You're right Bendito, these psycho "prolifers" are nothing but an extension of the neocon death cult that has taken over the government.

Let's see, Michael has spent more of the money awarded in the suit to help him throw her away. $324,000.00 to the lawyer trying to have her die. More money than has been spent to keep her alive. Now, we hear she's been given morphine twice to relieve the pain. What pain? She's in a PVS? She's feeling, she's feeling pain, enough to warrent morphine. Money? There's not enough left for hardly anything. Michael has been sure about that.

She's being given morphine in the possibility she might be pain- it's not an admission she feels pain. Most physicians don't believe she would feel pain.

It's pretty pathetic, if it's true.

In this case, I'm not sure what to believe, other than that this poor woman needs to die in peace.

Peter,
If you were in Terri Schiavo's place, would you want your spouse to do anything in her power to help you die if that was your wish?

Let's see, Michael has spent more of the money awarded in the suit to help him throw her away. $324,000.00 to the lawyer trying to have her die. More money than has been spent to keep her alive.

I'm guessing you don't have the figures for the amount of money Michael Schiavo spent on his wife's health care and efforts at rehabilitation during the first eight years after Terri Schiavo's collapse. Who do you suppose paid to have experimental surgery performed in an effort to cure her? An HMO?

At this point, all of Mrs. Schiavo's medical care is paid by Medicaid. The hospice where she has been housed all these years has never charged anyone.

Fucking necrophiliacs.

Bendito, how do you feel about Texas' Futile Care Law that allows hospitals to kill patients who they deem "hopeless" who don't have the money to pay for their own care anymore?

REMOVE FALWELL'S VENTILATOR NOW!!! :-)

Ann, I have asked that question of all trolls, and they just keep ignoring it. Muckdog, Roof, and Bendito, still waiting.

Culture of Life = Cashing in on Death

Religion is a for-profit enterprise so get the biscuits while they're hot

Ann, she was awarded $700K, he's spent $324K plus on this lawyer and the trials, there is still some left, not much but some. I have seen some figures recently, please believe me I don't remember where. You're right about the hospice and the lawyer hasn't charged since 2002.

j swift at 1024 a.m.
I think your comments are spot on. The parents are batshit crazy, and I don't care if there's a "religious" aspect to their insanity. They are deluded. They also may be 1) guilty, and feeling the guilt; 2) crassly opportunistic and limelight-loving; and 3) vindictive.
No parent I know who has a hold on reality would treat a child this way.

Why don't the parents show some pictures of Terri that are recent? Those photos we are being flooded with are years old. They don't want to deal with, or let us in on, reality.

Also, what's the basis for the "estranged" tag applied to the husband? Were they "estranged" before she fell into PVS?

Jerry Falwell in critcal condition?

Can we pass a bill TO PULL the plug on this hypocritical little monster? Sure, he still has a working brain, but his heart died long ago....and God's a-waiting....

(yes, I HATE fundies. Give me a few good lions.)

That suggestion is not nearly as bad as this link from Billmon! http://durrrrr.blogspot.com/

Peter,
You can find all the details on the University of Miami's website. The money for her care was put into a trust which was managed by a bank. Find the Guardian Ad Litem's (?) report. It was very favorable to her husband. And the guardian was appointed by Jeb! Bush.

My compassion for the Schindlers pretty much dried up when I realized that they were responsible for Randall Terry's involvement in this fucking disaster.

You know, we're all going to die. And, if we're truly courageous human beings, we will spend our lives loving others. It is our fate to watch many of them die, too. So there is nothing unique to the Schindlers in this ---and it is nonsense to say that we just "can't imagine" their pain. Horseshit. Who among us even needs to imagine it? It will happen to us all if we were courageous enough to love others in the first place.

Enough of the Victorian morbidity. Enough of the inability to cope and the self-serving manipulations. I will not indulge any of these people any more.

Davis:

Jerry Springer is a solid, dyed-in-the-wool Democrat. His contribution to the American culture of sleaze, though considerable, does nothing to detract from that.

I don't know why this is so funny, but it is.

Let me be the one to bring up that if so called 'tort reform' becomes law. Victims of corporate criminals will be limited to $250k.
This matters because as corporations exist to make money, corporate planners will be able to 'lock in' the cost of legal settlements.

Let's be honest, is there anyone who really believes that cost-benefit will not be applied under a euphemistic name like 'quality index factor' if 'tort reform' is passed.

It will happen to us all if we were courageous enough to love others in the first place.

i heard a unitarian minister say this once. i'm not kidding; his exact words were: "to love is to embrace death." it's a good point.

All that is left of the money is $50,000.00 according to an article I read with the breakdown of all expenses and expenditures. Most, if not all, went to helping Terri, especially during the early years.

Did those rational comments come from OUR Toby Petzold?

benjoya, my favorite slur against the Unitarians is that they "believe in one God. At most."

I don't know why this is so funny, but it is.

Thanks. Perhaps you've grown used to reading people who have a knee-jerk aversion to sleaze.

benjoya, my favorite slur against the Unitarians is that they "believe in one God. At most."

My favorite Unitarian joke is that they once found somebody profoundly objectionable, and burned a question mark on his lawn.

Well Yuval, your article sure answers some questions that I had about this whole sordid tragedy, especially those questions about her parents. I have polled at least eighteen people who said they would not want their child to live under those circumstances, yet the Shiavos want her to live on and on and on. Why was the question I kept asking myself. I think now I have the answer and that answer leads me to feel sorry for Terri and her Husband.

Come on Bendito and Muck. I hate it when people throw slime at someone else, then run and hide. Come on you little snipers, answer the question. How do you justify the Hudson decision vs. the Schiavo decision, and GW's part in both? You worship GWB, so let's hear your spin on this one. Cowards.

Well, when you ask for $1,100,000.00 a month from people, I think the IRS would be very interested.

Peter, I'm aware of how much of Terri Schiavo's trust has been spent of legal expenses (with the approval of a judge, I might add.) So, I would assume that Michael Schiavo spent approximately 350K of the trust for Mrs. Schiavo's treatment and attempted rehabilitation. Yet, we never hear that side, we only hear about the part of the money that was spent fighting Mrs. Schiavo's parents in court to make sure that his wife's wishes were respected.

Please, stop trying to villifying Michael Schiavo, it doesn't hold up. Every court guardian who evaluated Terri came to the same conclusion, that Michael Schiavo is an honorable man who tried everything possible to get his wife back but eventually came to the realization that he could not bring her back and the most loving thing he could do for his wife is make sure that her wish to not be kept alive by artifical means was carried out.

Judith, I'm not surprised that the trolls on this board refuse to discuss the Texas Futile Care Law. I've sent a number of letters to newspapers and op-ed writers about the law, and while I generally have no problem getting published, and have had quite a few journalist respond to my letters before, I cannot get a single bite on this.

It's as if they're covering there ears and singing so they won't hear what we are saying. Has the Bush Administration threatened the media? Journalists can't still be giving Bush a pass on everything because of 9/11! Someone besides Maureen Dowd has got to be brave enough to cover this matter.

Whthr w wll dscss th Txs lw r nt ds nt n ny wy chng th ntr f wht s bng dn t Trr. Sh ws nt dyng. Tht ws prblm fr hr hsbnd, s sh hd t b klld --MRDR--.

Way to go Bendito, painting a black and white portrait for all of us: Dead or Alive, For us or against us, Our way or the highway, Murderer or Not Murderer. You're neocon to the core. Anyone that has had a critically ill parent (or in my case critically ill grandparent: Alsheimers) knows this is not a black and white issue. Matter of fact almost no issues are, but that’s the portrait the neocons love to paint.

But hey, I might as well be talking to Terri Schiavo about this, you’re not going to listen.

P.S. There is a war on.

Well, now we have the famous Jesse Jackson making comments on behalf of the family: ''This is a moral issue and it transcends politics and family disputes.''

First lady Laura Bush also commented on the case Tuesday, saying the government was right to have intervened on behalf of Schiavo.

''It is a life issue that really does require government to be involved,'' Bush said aboard a plane bound for Afghanistan, where she was to promote education and women's rights.

Yeah Laura, you go girl. You go talk about women's rights. I'm sure Terri would be impressed.

As expected, Bendito and Muck can't defend their positons, much less those of their Leader.

By-the-way Bendito, baby Hudson wasn't dying either.

Simple and somehow very very sad.

Baby Hudson was black and therefore not too high on the list. Terri is white and a perfect rallying point for the Religious Right to have as a poster child for their agenda.

Hypocrites to the core. All life is good... if its white.

Ann, that's what muck and bendito are afraid to say. Instead they throw their darts and run to the shadows. Freakin cowards....

Whether we will discuss the Texas law or not does not an any way change the nature of what is being done to Terri.

Come on bendito, get some cajones. Explain that Texas law to us.

O yeah, benditio. Also explain why it was okay for Terri's own father to pull the plug on his mother when she was still living?

But it's not about Terris Schivao, Bendito, it's about the "culture of life." You simply cannot have a discussion of the "culture of life" in a vaccuum. The Republicans came up with "culture of life" I think they should be willing to discuss it and need to address the horror that is the Texas Futile Care Law. Besides, shouldn't it be a good issue for their base? It should really get the Religious Right charged up!

If Ann Richards had signed the law, it's all we'd be hearing about. And if Terri Schiavo had been in Texas, she would be six years in the grave now.

Well. it's been almost a whole day, I didn't think anyone would try to defend the Corporate Criminal Protection Act of 2005, also dishonestly called 'tort reform.'