Skatter........


Skattershooting and Terri Schiavo (3/31/05)

Skattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Hugh Downs:

I really like Spring. I'll soon hate the heat of Summer. But I like the first three weeks of Spring.
I've been amazed about the Internet since I first stumbled upon it in 1996. I continue to be amazed: Here's a site which will allows you to view the actual front pages of today's edition of various newspapers around the country.
The world got up in arms this month demanding that Syria leave Lebanon. I had no idea Syria was in Lebanon.
How silly was the Martha Stewart imprisonment?
Some conservatives were outraged that the Supreme Court banned the execution of juveniles this month. And I do mean outraged. Sheesh. These kids are going to be imprisoned for the rest of their lives and some folks are hopping mad that we can't kill them? What a bloodthirsty society we live in.
When Congress first subpoenaed a bunch of major league baseball players in connection with the steroid controversy I was ranting about how it simply was a cheap publicity stunt. And although that is exactly what it was, it was nice to see those overpaid, arrogant athletes sweating in front of the Congressional panel.
You have got to go see the Gaylord Texan if you haven't been there. It's amazing.
Michael Jackson's accuser claimed he was shown porn on his very first visit to Neverland. I find that hard to believe. As many kids as the King of Pop has paraded in and out of his estate, this is the only kid the prosecutor can find that saw porn on the first visit? (Note to self: Stop using the term "Neverland" like it is no longer weird).
Why do churches seem the most holy during funerals and when you walk into an empty one?
The New York Jets are all set to build a new football stadium in Manhattan. Where in the world did they find the land in Manhattan?
Ashley Smith, the lady that was held hostage by Atlanta judge/court reporter killer Brian Nichols, but was able to convince him to give himself up, is a little bit odd herself. Her news conferences were just so strange - she's so detached. It's like she was on a handful of Xanax.
The Scott Peterson jurors where absolutely nutcases. Most of them showed up for his sentencing (most jurors run away from the courtroom never to return) and then they couldn't wait to give interviews thereafter. That redheaded chick (you know her if you saw her) was bizarre.
In early March, rapper 50 Cent had three of the top five hits on Billboard's Hot 100. That had never happened before.
I said it last month and now I'm serious: If I hear Destiny's Child's "Soldier" one more time, I'm jumping into Lake Bridgeport never to return.
Trying to get a little culture, I rented The Motorcycle Diaries. It was fair.
"A drug deal gone bad" is a worn out saying.
I might also jump into the lake if I hear one more allegation of some pastor engaged in underage sex or kiddie porn.
Speaking of crazy jurors, I actually saw this about three weeks ago: During Larry King Live, Larry was interviewing one of the Robert Blake jurors who had found Blake not guilty that very day. In the middle of his five minute interview, he holds up a music CD that he created about the trial which would be on sale 90 days later. Amazing! He quickly mentioned www.liveonwebtv.com as to where you could go to buy the CD - You have got to check out the name of the songs.
Do they still have "Who's Who Among American High School Students?" Are there people that still fall for it?
Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi is a great name. It's not just "cherry", it's "wild cherry". That has to be good stuff.
I don't know why, but I trust Dr. Timothy Johnson of ABC News.
Collateral with Tom Cruise was really good - kind of a run of the mill ending - but very good.
Why does Santa love rich kids and hate poor kids?
Are things calming down in Iraq or are we just getting bored by it?
New Hewlett Packard CEO Mark Hurd was described by the AP as follows: "When in Dayton, he could be seen in his office from about 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. He'd usually would go home to eat dinner with his wife and two daughters, then put in two more hours of work before bed." Man, that's a quality life. Yeah, he's richer than everyone in Wise County combined, but what a heck of a life.
With the appointment of yet another female to the court of appeals in San Antonio, Texas now has the first "all female" appellate court. But check out this quote from Chief Justice Alma Lopez: "You will see a much harder-working court," she said. "Women look at cases much harder and differently than men. Women are stricter on the law, and we concentrate more on our work. And we'll probably get along much better." If a guy were to sterotype all female judges like that, all hell would break loose.
I don't want to see any news anchor fly in the back cockpit with the Blue Angels.
I re-rented Bridget Jones' Diary the other day - It's still very, very funny.
I think the only reason the nation went nuts on the Terry Schiavo case is the fact that she could open her eyes.
Maria Full of Grace, a story about the cutest little drug smuggler you've ever seen, was great.
This headline about a Supreme Court ruling caught my eye the other day "Court rules federal law allows people 40 and over to file age bias claims over salary and hiring even if the employers never intended any harm." The heck with the "intended harm" aspect of the story, I'm more stunned that I'm in an age group that could sue for age discrimination.
Do you remember those old posters that they would have in the mall that, if you stared at it long enough, you could see a different image suddenly appear? I have never - ever - been able to see the secret image appear.
Even though I saw Closer in the theater, I rented it on the first day it was out on DVD. It may have been my favorite movie of 2004.
There have been 264 Popes.
The Baylor Lady Bears basketball team made the Final Four. Yeah, I know, you don't care - but they made the Final Four.
I have never caught more flak than for my note last month that the Bee Gees were the worst band of all time. I can fire off hot opinions on gays, dope, civil rights, and religion and no one cares. Insult the brothers Gibb, and I get assaulted.

And now from the category that I should probably just shut up (And the following is a little boring compared to the normal Skattershooting) ........

    The Terri Schiavo media coverage drove me insane, but you couldn't help be fascinated by it all. But of all the yelling and screaming that was going on, everyone had a hard time grasping the issue at hand. If I understand it correctly, Florida law states that a person can have a feeding tube removed if it is proven that (1) that person is in a constant vegetative state, (2) that the person would not want to live in that condition, and (3) proof of the person's intention need not be in writing. I'm a little surprised that Florida law is that way, but so be it. But what many people don't understand is that there was an actual trial in the Schiavo case before a judge where all three of those elements were established. Once a judge made those findings, he ordered the feeding tube removed. This gave rise to a variety of appeals, none of which overturned the trial judge's decision. The appeals did not concern themselves with whether the "right" decision was made, but, simply put, to make sure that all the rules were followed.

    Most of us believe that is the way our legal system should work. Let's have a trial where factual determinations are made and then have the appeals, not for trying the case all over again, but to insure that procedural and evidentiary rules were properly followed and applied.

    All Republicans believed this until the Schiavo case made news.

    Let me poke a little fun at the Republicans for a moment: They really lost their collective minds in this Schiavo case. For years they have pounded their chests in favor of "State's Rights" and against "Activist Judges". The passage of the law a couple of weeks ago by Congress (S.B. 653), that allowed federal review of the Schiavo legal case, was shameful in several respects. Whether it be the sanctimonious Tom DeLay (his political days are numbered, by the way) or the baffling Bill Frist (who diagnosed Schiavo from afar as not being in a "constant vegetative state"), it was enough for me to be embarrassed for them.

    "State's Rights" is a theory based upon a very simple constitutional interpretation: If the Constitution doesn't give a particular power to the Federal Government then the State's should be able to handle the issue in any way they see fit. For example, most Republicans dodged the Gay Marriage issue by saying that since the Constitution is silent on the issue, the States should be free to outlaw it if they so desire. Florida, in the Schiavo case, has a set of laws dictating under what circumstances life support can be pulled from a patient. Obviously, the Constitution is silent on the issue. Under the State's Rights policy, each state should be able to set up its own laws on this matter. If the State of Texas wants to pass a law that requires a signed written declaration of a person's wishes regarding life support, it should be free to do it. If Florida allows those wishes to be based upon the testimony of others, so be it. But for some crazy reason, the Republicans took off on a tangent of "let Florida law be damned" and passed a law allowing a federal court to review the case. Delay actually filed a brief in the Supreme Court later that week saying it was his intention that the federal district court completely review the issue from scratch (called "de novo"). State's Rights no longer meant a thing. It was baffling.

    The other crazy part of the Republican rant these past few weeks is that on "activist judges". For some reason, they were pissed the federal district court, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court refused to get involved in the issue even after Congress passed the emergency legislation allowing them to do so. (The predictably deferred to the Florida state courts and Florida law). DeLay went nuts and, at a press conference in Houston, blamed ``an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president.'' Huh? What? An activist judge does just the opposite of what the federal judiciary did in the Schiavo case - That is, an activist judge would decide a case based upon his personal convictions regardless of what the law says. In the Schiavo case, an activist federal judge would say "I think all life is precious and should never be ended, therefore, I'm going to interpret the federal constitution in such a way that will allow the feeding tube to be reinserted." This is exactly the type of attitude the Republicans have abhorred. You cannot hear a Republican running for office that doesn't utter the worn out phrase: "Judges should follow the law and not make law". That's exactly what they got in Florida. But when it did not satisfy their desired results (i.e. put the feeding tube back in), they went bonkers.

    The Schiavo case was gut wrenching. I hated seeing her picture. I hated the thought of her starving to death. I felt for her parents. I felt for every American that thought it was the wrong thing to remove the feeding tube. But Congressional interaction was simply wrong.

    And for the record, please pull my feeding tube if it is the only thing keeping me alive.

    (And if it wasn't for the Pope's death, we would still be hearing about Terri Schiavo).

Barry Green served as District Attorney for Wise and Jack Counties from 1993 through 2000. He is now a partner in the Decatur law firm of Smith & Green, P.C. and is Board Certified in Criminal Law.