Isakson was looking at the other side of the coin. Had Terry Schiavo signed an end-of-life plan (or “living will”) all the brouhaha would not have occurred. She would have been maintained in her vegetative state forever, or not, as she desired, and not have to rely on relatives, or Dr. Frist, to battle it out in court.

From either side of the argument, a living will looks like a great idea. I’ve had mine for many years.

It all depends on where you live. Different states have different laws. And even in states with strong laws on this issue, hospitals will still chicken out and do all the useless and expensive measures you didn’t want them to do, for fear of being set upon by some family member with an axe to grind and ties to Operation Rescue or some other group that can afford top-flight legal service.

how about this – in return for the other side dropping the issue, we will happily omit Mr. Isakson’s proposal in its entirety from the healthcare bill. We will happily exclude from the reform package all reference to Republican desires to violently decrease the surplus population or, alternatively, to impose big guvmint on America by having wouldbe rethug authoritarians like ex-Florida Governor Jeb Bush personally decree whether or not people should be allowed to make private decisions on continuing care for their long brain-dead loved-ones. There. Trig is now safe. Can we move on, please?

How about allowing the 20 & 21 year olds a chance to live? End the goddamn useless wars and bring the boys home already.

40 years ago this weekend.

You’d think with all their vaunted ‘message coordination’ the Rs could at least attack with a coherent argument.

Or not.

Palin and the Republics had better vow to remain ever vigilant because that crafty Obama might put something in a signing statement to cause the murder of old people and Palin’s child. Every bill has to be checked and rechecked. I suggest round-the-clock patrols in front of the White House. I know Palin will have to take her eyes of of Putin, but sometimes bigger issues take precedence.

Newt is all over it, as usual.

Hat tip to Digby: “Wing Nut Dogwhistles”. Just about fell off my chair on that one.

Whoda’ thunk we’d have a Republican Chair of the Death Panel?

Why would they need to coordinate when they have the media all too ready to catapult their most outrageous biased piles o’crap.

Truth is, the Lee Atwater RATfuckers are back in action and the media are only to happy to welcome them because they can continue their lazy stenoing pretense at the shallow end of the journalism pool.

Meanwhile, the Republican Anarchy Thugs continue their campaign of division, destruction, and fear-mongering.

“…the media are only to happy to welcome them because they can continue their lazy stenoing pretense at the shallow end of the journalism pool…”

Let’s not be too hard on the MSM. After all, it takes plenty of time and energy to suck up to the elite power brokers in DC. Further, such concerted efforts often result in invitations to the “A List” parties.

Right, Andrea? (For example.)

Fuckin “vote Pro-Life” ads on the Lake, jesus h christ !

The Republics would have a difficult time if the Democrats in Congress had leaders that were not completely bland and easy to ignore.

“..bland and easy to ignore.”

They make watching a bowl of oatmeal positively compelling, by comparison.

Damn. I haven’t seen those recently. I do enjoy clicking on them and having them pay FDL some scratch.

Your right there. My wife was a nurse before she retired and she saw that all the time.

Newt Grinch’s utterly incoherent comment yesterday on why he thinks Palin’s right about Death Panels:

“You are asking us to trust the government. You are asking us to decide to believe the government should be trusted. Communal standards historically is a very dangerous concept. The bill is a thousand pages of setting up mechanisms. You are asking us to trust turning power over to the government, when there are clearly people in America who believe in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards.”

In other words, ’cause the bill is a 1,000 pages long there MUST be death panels hidden in it somewhere.

How long is the bill for Single Payer? 50 pages at most. A bill of a 1,000 pages will be a pile of shit that they will peddle as everyone geting a pony.

You’re not supposed to just watch a bowl of oatmeal. You’re supposed to eat it. And if you put fresh honey, walnuts and maybe a peach or a banana in the oatmeal it’s not only not bland but it’s quite tasty. Good for your to. Help you to keep your wits about you well up to and after the time of writing out your living will.

How can you say that about Harry Reid??? He’s a tower of strength and fortitude. Besides that, recordings of his speeches and press conferences have been proven to be an antidote for insomnia.

there are clearly people in America who believe in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards.

Yeah, like there were clearly people in America who believe in blowing up buildings. McVeigh, Kazinski come to mind….

Once again Newt-the-toot blathers b.s. and doesn’t get called on it by his cocktail wienie media toadies.

“You are asking us to trust the government. You are asking us to decide to believe the government should be trusted.”

But he seems to think we’re just fine to trust the government to decide to send our young men and women to die in the desert. Or to implement the death penalty without error. He seems to trust the government to decide which corporate masters to funnel all of my tax money to. We just can’t trust them to send a check to my doctor.

yep. He said that on CBS’s (I think) “This Week” yesterday and nobody challenged him at all.

Gingrich and all the right wing pundits, bloviators etc. far to numerous to mention play only to the most ignorant and uneducated of the American public.

Bob Schieffer is not there to challange right wing bloviators. He’s there to provide them merely a platform. You can’t expect someone to know something when their paycheck is dependent on them not knowing.

That is if you have health insurance. But if you don’t they send you HTD (home to die).

this is the flip side of the rethug “personal responsibility and choice” thing – only you can be trusted to take responsibility for your own car and only you can be responsible for making enough money to be able to afford care at all… Or your parents’ and ancestors’ responsibility, I guess, in the case of all that inherited money they so dislike taxing, but we’ll skip that one for now. Personal responsibility and choice ends, of course, whenever a conflict appears between individual initiative and the rethug religion, but we’ll skip that one for now, too.

There are Dingos in the House Health Bill….they want to eat our babies.

Actually, Sarah is being an idiot. I guess there is no surprise there, huh? Down’s Syndrome is a pre-existing condition that will likely make it very expensive for the Palin family to purchase shitty health insurance on the open market.

I wonder how Sarah’s going to react to that, and if she’ll regret leaving her Alaskan sinecure.