musing minds

Let’s recap media’s track record post-911.

Aided by their carefully selected future telling experts, the MSM’s preconceived narrative of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan was a fate similar to the Russians. They couldn’t have been more wrong, as they unscrupulously tried in vain to erase that country from their news pages while a once enslaved people voted in real democratic elections for the first time in history.

Then came Iraq where the media proclaimed the U.S. was “rushing to war” as if the ten or so year period of repeated U.N. violations never existed. Forgetting that the Balkan bombardment lacked U.N. sanction, the left-leaning media loudly declared the war illigitimate without explicit U.N. endorsement. The oil-for-food scandal simply exposed what many had believed all along- that the U.N. was a corrupt institution run by a motley collection of bureaucrats and dictators scratching each other’s proverbial backs. So much for putting U.S. foreign policy under U.N. control.

After the invasion came the incessant predictions of a civil war, Vietnam style quagmire and, my favorite, the proclamations that Iraqis weren’t ready for democracy. Well, we all know what happened there. Funny how those of us in the blogosphere weren’t as “shocked” at the elections as the media claimed to be. Could it be that they were actually believing their own spin?

Notwithstanding that democracy began to take root throughout the region, the media still clung to one last bit of anti-Bush spin – that the results may have worked out for the best, but Bush was still wrong to push for war under the guise of a false WMD threat, utilizing the intelligence agencies as his propaganda tools. He wasn’t just wrong, he knew he was wrong and actively sought out intelligence to further his political goals. Now comes the 600 page report on the U.S. intelligence failures in Iraq. It’s key conclusion:

“We conclude that it was the paucity of intelligence and poor analytical tradecraft, rather than political pressure, that produced the inaccurate pre-war intelligence assessments.”

Ouch, that’s gotta hurt. (Hat tip Powerline)

Political Teen has the video

Lord,

Please hold Terri and her family in the comfort of your eternal embrace.

Please hold Pope John Paul II and his Catholic family in the comfort of your eternal embrace.

Please hold Prince Ranier and his family in the comfort of your eternal embrace.

Amen

Terri has died. Michael did NOT allow her family to be with her at the end.

Rest In Peace, Terri.

9:03 a.m. EST

Heard on Fox News: Brother Paul O’Donnell Randall Terry is stating that Michael Schiavo will NOT allow the Schindlers to be in the room with Terri as she dies. The Schindler’s are pleading with Michael to allow them to be there with Terri, even if he is there too. He’s refusing.

The PDF of the Appeals Court ruling in the Schiavo matter is out. The dissenting judgement is very strong. Check out this passage where they take on the separation of powers issue:

I believe that it is fully within Congress’s power to dictate standards of review and to waive in specific cases nonconstitutional abstention doctrines. Indeed if Congress cannot do so, the fate of hundreds of federal statutes would be called into serious question. I wish to dispel any questions of jurisdiction in this case. (emphasis added)

The above quote was in specific response to Judge Birch’s newly proclaimed position that the legislation was unconstitutional (he would have said it before apparantly, but he was too rushed). I’m not kidding, that was pretty much his explanation for it not being raised in their previous decision. He was the only judge that raised the lack of jurisdiction, whereas the remainder simply disregarded the substance of the legislation.

I’ve previously said about this case that strong dissenting judgements are often a prelude to positive legal developments. A lot of questions are going to be asked when the dust clears on this one. Legislation is already being considered, and I’ve heard rumblings of impeachment, although that may be a bit premature at this point. One thing’s for sure – we haven’t seen the last of this dissent.
UPDATE: Andrew Cohen of cBS is proclaiming one of the judges a “hero.” Hmmm…cBS, I wonder which one he’s referring to.

Tom Clancy’s book Red Rabbit was awfully prescient.

Today we learn that the premise of Red Rabbit, the KGB through a Turkish Agent hired by the Bulgarians, was responsible for the 1981 assassination attempt on the Pope.

Hindustan Times has the story here.

New documents found in the files of the former East German intelligence services confirm the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II was ordered by the Soviet KGB and assigned to Bulgarian agents, an Italian daily said on Wednesday.

Read the rest.

Hat tip: The Anchoress

The Court of Appeal’s Schiavo ruling shows a complete and utter contempt towards Congress. Just in case you’re wondering folks, Congress passes the laws, and the courts interpret them. Yes, they can declare them unconstitutional, but that’s not what appeared to have happened here. They simply disregarded the law.

I agree with Ed at Captain’s Quarters that this raises some very serious questions about the power of the judiciary. What I find particularily alarming is not only the fact that the court disregarded the law, but also the manner in which they did it, as if to remind the other two branches who really calls the shots around here.

Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr.:

Any further action by our court or the district court would be improper while the members of her family and the members of Congress have acted in a way that is both fervent and sincere, the time has come for dispassionate discharge of duty.
…
In resolving the Schiavo controversy, it is my judgement that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Father’s blueprint for the governance of a free people – our Constitution. (emphasis mine)

Judges Gerald Tjoflat and Charles R. Wilson:

The relevant question here is whether a rational factfinder could have found by clear and convincing evidence that Mrs. Schiavo would have wanted nutrition and hydration to be withdrawn under these circumstances. The plaintiffs carry a heavy burden, but I do not believe that this question can be determined in this expedited fashion without a hearing on the merits.

So, Judge Birch is not quite saying the law that congress passed was unconstitutional, just that he thinks that the executive and legislative branches have overreached their purview? That the judicial branch doesn’t need to listen to the other two branches?

Judges Tjoflat and Wilson are correct and it would behoove the rest of the 11th to have listened to them.

Source: My Way News

11th Circuit Court Rejects Schiavo Appeal

By RON WORD
Associated Press Writer

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) — With time running out for Terri Schiavo, a federal appeals court Wednesday rejected her parents’ latest attempt to get the brain-damaged woman’s feeding tube reconnected.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to consider an emergency bid by Bob and Mary Schindler for a new hearing in their case, raising a flicker of hope for the parents after a series of setbacks in the case. But the court rejected the request 15 hours later.

Three times last week, the court also ruled against the Schindlers.