Terri Schiavo -- another reason NOT to vote for Nader

Note from Blue Girl:

For the most part, this blog does not entertain third-party endorsements or advocacy. However, this post was submitted for review, and is being posted in spite of the fact it is out of the mainstream of the mission of this website.

Members of this blog, and some regular readers, are probably aware that:
A. I'm not a registered Democrat;
B. I have voted Green before.

But, that was for the official Green Party presidential candidate in 2004, not Ralph Nader.

I had forgotten what an ass Ralph made of himself over the Terri Schiavo situation three years ago until noticing, via my blog meter at my personal blog, that my post from back then on the Terri Schiavo issue caught somebody's eye. So, here is that post, lifted from my blog:

I hadn’t posted much about Terri Schiavo to this point, but Ralph Nader’s idiocy was just too much.

Nader, a lawyer who should know better, took his place with the Randall Terrys of the world Thursday, March 24, in calling for Terri Schiavo’s feeding and water tubes to be reinserted.

“A profound injustice is being inflicted on Terri Schiavo,” Nader asserted. “Worse, this slow death by dehydration is being imposed upon her under the color of law, in proceedings in which every benefit of the doubt-and there are many doubts in this case-has been given to her death, rather than her continued life.”

Nader may be a lawyer, but he has apparently shown as much interest in the actual legal proceedings to this point, and now has as much familiarity with them as Dr. Bill Frist, Senate majority leader, does with the medical side of the case.

Maybe we can lock the two of them in a closet together.

But there’s more idiocy from Ralph.

The courts not only are refusing her tube feeding, but have ordered that no attempts be made to provide her water or food by mouth. Terri swallows her own saliva. Spoon feeding is not medical treatment.

“This outrageous order proves that the courts are not merely permitting medical treatment to be withheld, it has ordered her to be made dead,” Nader and (Wesley) Smith assert.

Wrong. In right-to-die cases, courts have repeated found that manual outside help like this is just as much a medical treatment as are tubes, breathing machines, etc.

Ralph will never get my third-party or independent candidate support for dogcatcher now, let alone the presidency. And if the Green Party ever considers endorsing him, affiliating with him or lending its name to any candidacy of his in any way, then I’ll move my progressive vote elsewhere, if Democrats still aren’t worthy of it either.

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At the end of the day

SC Democratic debate liveblogging by Josh Marshall with a video clip, too.

Who won the debate? "John Edwards seemed to stay above the fray and that may inure to his benefit." The Trail

Obama in SC, Hillary goes elsewhere: "South Carolina has become a must-win state for Obama since Clinton prevailed in New Hampshire and Nevada. He was expected to campaign here all week." AP

Wingnut Repub Rep. John Shadegg (AZ-03) has been accused of "using his political-action committee to skirt laws that limit the amount of money donors can give a candidate." Plus, Shadegg ignored the serious drinking water "problems of his constituents in Paradise Valley." He was too busy campaigning for John McCain in NH and SC.

Avedon spoke well of Obama's MLK speech and then noted, "That might go some way to making up for that nasty little business of letting a virulently anti-gay creep speak up against gays when campaigning on behalf of Obama... maybe." Pam Spaulding offers more insights.

GA campaign organizer Johnson leaves Fred for Mitt saying, “[C]learly Fred Thompson is not going to be the nominee.”

Also in GA, "Gov. Sonny Perdue has made a major list of mentionables in the underground Republican contest for vice president." AJC Political Insider

McCain leaps ahead of Rudy by 12% in... drum roll, please... New York! Stick a fork in Rudy...

Someone, please, make him stop -- Ralph Nader eyes another run at the WH in 2008.

MLK unremembered: McCain voted against making MLK a national holiday in 1983. He's "spending today at the inauguration of Alabama Governor Bob Riley who is a member of an organization that has been criticized for excluding African Americans."

Rick Perlstein -- "Conservatives still don't get Martin Luther King."

Cheney's emails -- "Waxman’s report said 'Vice President Cheney’s office showed no electronic messages on 16 occasions from September 2003 to May 2005.' Among the sixteen days for which email are missing from Vice President Cheney’s office 'is Sept. 30, 2003, the same day the day the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced they were investigating who outed former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.' " TP

Pentagon ponders Gen. David Petraeus for top NATO command. NYT

Inside Iraq -- Photos from the Army of Dude.

Bad news for the R-Noise Machine -- A new Pew study shows that "the number of people getting election news online has more than doubled since Bush first stole his way into the White House." Details at Down With Tyranny!

[That's all...no more after the jump.]

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Ralph Nader Visits Orlando

A blogger for the Orlando Sentinel attended the event and he shared these two tidbits:

Nader pointed out the benefits of solar power, nuclear energy and why exactly we need to destroy the corporate monopoly on energy. He said that corporations don't like the idea of solar because it is difficult to control and regulate.

"Corporations want energy they can control," Nader said, "this control then gives them political power and power over you."

Succinct indictment of the Bush's administration againt going green. And then there was this about 2000 Election:

An older attendee asked Nader if he was aware of his complicity in having Bush as our president, the War in Iraq and everything else that has come out of the current administration. The guest was referring to the notion that Nader's presence in the 2000 election cost Democratic Candidate Al Gore victory over President George Bush. He asked how Nader felt about being used as a tool and a pawn by Karl Rove.

"As I recall, Gore did win the election," Nader responded, "it was just stolen from him by Bush."

A nicely done review of the presentation.

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