Maybe Jebbo's just afraid people will realize HE'S in a persistent vegetative state and want to pull the plug on HIM

Jimmy Margulies (click to enlarge)

by Ken

In case you missed the news, Friday in New Hampshire Jeb Bush once again stood by his shameful pandering in the case of poor Terry Schiavo, torturing both the comatose victim lying in a "persistent vegetative state" and the family that was trying to deal with their loss. It was, of course, all so the sniveling turd could score a few political points with people too stupid and meddlesome to understand that their place, ethically as well as legally, was to mind their own fucking business.

And the jack-booted jackass managed to introduce yet a new layer of imbecility to his "position": a demand that anyone hoping to collect Medicare benefits be required to declare some sort of end-of-life care intention.

It is, of course, an utterly desirable thing that all of us make legally clear our wishes in such matters. I'm grateful, for example, that my mother made her wishes in the matter absolutely clear to me both orally and in a living will, and when the time came, her stated wish to have no extraordinary measures taken to prolong her life provided invaluable guidance to her doctors and other care providers. But do we really want an ethics-free bastard like Jebbo forcing people to satisfy him in order to receive Medicare benefits?

Here's the Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe reporting from Manchester:

"I don’t think I would have changed anything," he said in response to a questioner during a "Politics and Eggs" breakfast here Friday. "I stayed within the constitutional responsibilities or authority that I had. We changed the law first and then a year later it was ruled unconstitutional and then basically didn't have the ability to do anything. The federal government then intervened and that was ruled unconstitutional. So, she starved to death."

Diagnosed as in a persistent vegetative state, Schiavo, 41, died in April 2005 after a 15-year battle over her husband Michael's decision to remove her feeding tube. Her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, fought to keep her alive, a move that prompted Bush, the Florida legislature and Congress to pass laws intervening on their behalf. The legal process stretched from Florida courts to the federal judicial system, but her feeding tube was ultimately ordered removed.

In hindsight, Bush said Friday that he wished that Schiavo had signed an advance directive, or legal document outlining how she would have wanted her end-of-life care managed.

"The family could have sorted this out rather than hearsay be the driver of this," he said. "That would have been better. I think if we're going to mandate anything from government, it might be that if you're going to take Medicare that you also sign up for an advanced directive where you talk about this before you're so disabled that then there's fights amongst the family. I know for a fact that the Schindlers were more than happy to take over the care of this child. And I supported that."

Except, of course, that it was none of the Schindlers' fucking business either, Jebbo. How is that you still don't know that for a fact, you lying imbecile turd?

He added that the Schiavo affair "was one of the most difficult things I had to go through, it broke my heart that we weren't successful of sustaining this person's life, so she could be loved by her mom and dad. But the courts decided otherwise and I was respectful of that."

Yeah, really respectful, you torture-mongering whore.

Ed notes that "Bush's suggestion to require Medicare recipients to sign off on end-of-life care is likely to revive a fight that occurred at the height of debate over the Affordable Care Act."

Early versions of the legislation included a proposal to reimburse doctors for talking with Medicare patients about advanced directives and end-of-life care. But that proposal was widely criticized and incorrectly characterized by GOP critics of the law, most famously Sarah Palin, who used a Facebook post to label the proposal the establishment of a "death panel."

It's funny how, back when the country was beset by lying right-wing psychopaths screeching about death panels, I don't recall hearing Jebbo speaking up about the importance of end-of-life planning. For that matter, I don't recall hearing a lot of political reporters say straight out that brain-dead opportunists like Princess Sarah Palin were plainly and simply "incorrectly characterizing" as "death panels" the legal provisions envisioned for the ACA calling for end-of-life discussions between patients and doctors. ("Incorrectly characterizing," of course, is a fancy way of saying "lying their stinking guts out.")

#