We just took a dump on the Constitution

Chalk this one up as most likely "one more Terri Schiavo blog post that probably didn't need to be written." But I have a hard time helping myself in the face of this abomination.

My outrage has nothing to do with the case itself, but the increasing hostility over and attempted concellation of the judiciary, fully one-third of the American system of government that the Right loves to cherish so. This is perhaps the most dangerous law that has yet been rendered under the watch of this Administration, because it strikes at the heart of our democracy itself. The Congress has simultaneously:

-denied state's rights to settle their own judicial proceedings
-reinvented the federal judiciary as a funnel for whatever Congressional whims they require it to investigate
-nullified the Supreme Court, who has already ruled against intervening in the matter
-eliminated the checks and balances that exist in the 216-year contract of American government

And as for "individualizing" the legislation so that it applies to only Schiavo and nobody else, read here the last paragraph of today's LA Times piece on the subject:

"Evangelical leader Cizik predicted that the Schiavo case would be among the first of many to present similar issues."

If you think this is the only time this kind of blatant disregard for the Constitution will be attempted, you're out of your mind. We know that the other side's strategy is that of a shark; to keep moving forward continuously no matter what. Appeasement in the form of "legislation without precedent" (which is ludicrous on its face) does nothing to stop the shark from swimming. It just momentarily stalls them until the next Terri Schiavo... and the next... and the next.

This is the ledge in the rock that the Dominionist Right has been climbing to accede to fundamentalist governmental control. I really don't think I'm putting too fine a point on it.

Never mind the fact that during the last four years, the White House has systematically removed the feeding tubes of poor people nationwide, eliminating their opportunities, lowering their wages, denying their labor protections, worsening their environment, making it impossible for them to climb out of personal debt, doing nothing to improve their crisis of health care, and, as famously noted by many, quite literally throwing people off feeding tubes if they cannot pay for them.

But I digress.

I suspect the judiciary will not brook this challenge to their legitimacy, and act accordingly. But that of course plays right into Republican hands. We've seen the "activist judges" and "blame the lawyers" noise grow louder and louder over the years (save for that speed bump of silence during Bush v. Gore, of course), and the more the judiciary tries to fight back, the more the GOP will say this proves their point. Mass impeachment of lifetime-appointed judges, the "nuclear option" to push the "Right" judges onto the bench, increasing legislation that brushes the judiciary aside; the goal is to remove the supposedly dispassionate arm of our democracy, to move the country closer to a rule by fiat.

If Congress really cared about doing something about this, they a) wouldn't have gotten involved on Friday, and b) could try to put through a bill mandating a living will for all patients admitted into hospital facilities. I'm still wondering about the efficacy (and applicability, particularly as a federal law adopted by hospitals iin the states) of that one, but at the very least there could have been an appropriation of funds for educating the public on the importance of a living will. This does none of that. All it does is take a giant steaming dump on the Constitution.