Jewish Russian Telegraph

The Dance Macabre of the Woodside Hospice and its Friends

Toronto Free Press:

by Judi McLeod, Editor,
Thursday, March 31, 2005

Mainstream media unreported conflicts of interest in Schiavo tragedy

 

Every time a rock is lifted in the Terri Schiavo tragedy, another conflict of interest comes slithering out.

The conflict-of-interest potential in the right-to-die connections among current figures involved in the case are only outdone by the Woodside Hospice board of director’s conflict of interest reality.

 

There’s the death-is-beautiful, right-to-die activist Michael Schiavo attorney George Felos.

Don’t make eye contact with Felos, who claims he can ascertain a person’s desire to die by "looking into their eyes" and letting their spirits speak directly to him.

A jumped-up volunteer at Woodside Hospice, Felos became chairman of the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, which runs Woodside, and only came off the board about a year after Michael Schiavo placed his estranged wife there.

Then there’s Dr. Ronald Cranford, handpicked by Michael Schiavo to examine Terri and on whose say-so Terri was categorized in "persistent vegetative state". Cranford is the MD who officially ordered Terri’s feeding tube removed on March 18. A neurologist, Cranford testifies in cases such as Terri’s around the country, always pumping the dehydration and starvation side. He was 1992’s featured speaker for the pro-euthanasia Hemlock Society, which was renamed The Choice in Dying Society. (WorldNetDaily).

Cranford nicknamed himself, "Dr. Humane Death".

A bioethicist, and a pioneer in euthanasia and right-to-die issues, Dr. Humane Death is a fully-fledged member of The Choice in Dying Society.

At least Cranford is not a board member of the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast.

Mary Labyak, CEO of Woodside Hospice has direct ties to the Euthanasia Society of America and Hemlock for Hospice, described by Hyscience.com as "an organization that seeks to accelerate the dying process."

Everett Rice, former Pinellas County Sheriff (1988-204) endorsed Judge George Greer for reelection in campaign ads. Rice, a former board member for the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, hired Michael Schiavo while Schiavo’s guardianship proceedings were being heard in the courtroom of his longtime friend, Judge George Greer.

Senator Jim King, who originally upheld the passage of "Terri’s Law", was a board member of Woodside.

Then there’s Gus Michael Bilirikis, Florida State representative 1998-2000 and between 2001-2003, who was on the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast board of directors.

As a county commissioner, Judge Greer was a working colleague of Barbara Sheen Todd (county commissioner) for eight consecutive years. Sheen Todd is also on the board of the hospice where Terri lingers.

Judge Greer’s fellow judge, Judge John Lenderman is the brother of Martha Lenderman, on the same board.

The mainline media has not reported on the myriad conflicts of interest connected to the Terri Schiavo tragedy, although any one interested can read about them on the Internet.

[Hear Rush Limbaugh talk about this article]

Indeed, the dance macabre of the friends of death.

posted by: jrtelegraph

Columbia Whitewashes Arabists

This press release of the David Project come via Little Green Footballs:

Press Release
The David Project
March 31, 2005
Contact: Dr. Charles Jacobs, President

David Project Reacts to Columbia Report on Student Harassment

“Biased committee ignores facts, protects its own”

Responding to the just-released report of Columbia University’s Grievance Committee headed by Vice President of Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks, Charles Jacobs, President of the David Project in Boston, issued the following statement:

“This is a biased report by a biased committee which ignored the facts to protect its own. We expected an unfair report from a committee composed of friends and colleagues — and even a thesis advisor — of the professors it was supposed to investigate. But the report is disgraceful, beyond our expectation. The Dirks Committee failed President Bollinger, who only a few days ago told the press that Columbia professors cannot ‘use the podium as an ideological platform to indoctrinate a captive audience.’

“The Committee considered only three incidents of professors harassing students worthy of investigation. We know there were many more. It projected blame for the problems on outside forces.

“While the Committee judged the testimony of Professor Joseph Massad not truthful – he was charged with shouting at a student, “If you’re going to deny the atrocities being committed against Palestinians, then you can get out of my classroom!” — the report so gently chided him (“...his rhetorical response to her query exceeded commonly accepted bounds...”) that his wrist may not register the ‘slap.’

“The Dirks Committee report tries to silence dissenting professors, upbraiding whistleblowers on the faculty who help students report abuse by other professors.

“The report admits the University Administration was insensitive, inconsiderate, and even antagonistic to students who complained that anti-Israel professors harassed them. And it admits that students had no effective means to register complaints. But it reduced a major academic scandal to only these narrow bureaucratic foul-ups.

“Most importantly, the Dirks Committee obfuscates the main issue: the teaching of lies and propaganda by Arabist professors who so demonize Israel that defenders of the Jewish state find themselves in a hostile environment in their classes.

“The report obfuscates by referring to incidents of biased, dishonest teaching in pedagogical and psychological terms. It classes them as ‘rhetorically combative’ methods or as expressions of ‘uncongenial views’ that — and the issue is reduced to this — make some students ‘uncomfortable.’ But the committee never considers the possibility that these ‘teachings’ are lies and propaganda. When Professor Massad teaches that the word ‘Zion’ means ‘penis’ and therefore Zionism is a macho movement, this is not an uncongenial view, but a lie. When at Columbia it is taught that the Jews are Nazis and the Palestinians are the new Jews, and that the Jews slaughtered Arabs in Jenin, these are not ‘rhetorically combative’ modes of teaching; they are blood libels, anti-Semitic provocations, deceptions, and Arabist propaganda.

“These issues will only fester if ‘investigated’ by friends of the offending professors, many themselves anti-Israel activists, circling the wagons. The only question is: What will Lee Bollinger do to restore academic integrity?”

The David Project, which promotes a fair and honest discussion of the Middle East Conflict, produced the film, “Columbia Unbecoming.”

posted by: jrtelegraph

Slavery in a Boston Suburb

Boston Herald:

Royal pain: Feds say a Saudi princess enslaved servants in this house
By J.M. Lawrence and Franci Richardson
Thursday, March 31, 2005 - Updated: 02:08 PM EST

A Saudi Arabian princess living in Winchester was arrested yesterday on federal charges of enslaving two Indonesian women to care for her wheelchair-bound prince and unruly sons who allegedly spit on the servants.

     Handcuffed and shackled at the ankles, Hana F. Al Jader, 39, a mother of six, was ordered held without bail pending a hearing tomorrow in Boston, where Saudi Arabian Embassy officials said they will appear on her behalf.
     ``It's just a shame they're taking her away from her children and her sick husband right now,'' her attorney Saher J. Macarius said. ``She's a very simple, pleasant person.'' [link]

Al Jader is married to H.H. Prince Mohamed Bin Turki Al Saud, whom Macarius described as a cousin of the king of Saudi Arabia. The couple came to Boston to get medical care for the prince, who was paralyzed in an accident, the lawyer said.

     Federal prosecutors claim Jader threatened her maids, identified in court papers as ``Tri'' and ``Ro,'' with ``serious harm or physical restraint'' if they did not obey, and she paid each woman $75 per week while telling immigration officials they earned $375 per week. [link]

  Dozens of federal agents raided the home in September, seizing notes, personal items and dusting for fingerprints, according to another source.

     A neighborhood source said Al Jader was often seen wearing designer clothes and leaving her home in a limousine. She bought her 62 Cambridge St. home in 2001 for $635,000, and also owns a nearby Arlington home assessed at $1.2 million. The government is seeking to take both properties through forfeiture for being used in a crime.  [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

The Right Man for the UN Job

Mark Steyn analyzes why outspoken John Bolton is precisely the right man for the job of the Unites States representative at the United Nations:

NUTS AND BOLTON

If you’re going to play the oldest established permanent floating transnational crap game for laughs, you might as well pick an act with plenty of material. What I love about John Bolton, America’s new ambassador to the UN, is the sheer volume of ‘damaging’ material. Usually, the Democrats and media have to riffle through decades of dreary platitudes to come up with one potentially exploitable infelicitous soundbite. But with Bolton the damaging quotes are hanging off the trees and dropping straight into your bucket. Five minutes’ casual mooching through the back catalogue and your cup runneth over:

The UN?

‘There is no such thing as the United Nations.’

The UN building?

‘If you lost ten storeys, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.’

Reform of the Security Council?

‘If I were redoing the Security Council, I’d have one permanent member ...the United States.’

The International Criminal Court?

‘Fuzzy-minded romanticism ...not just naive but dangerous.’

International law in general?

‘It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law.’

Offering incentives to rogue states?

‘I don’t do carrots.’

But he does do shtick. I happen to agree with all the above statements, but I can see why the international community might be minded to throw its hands up and shriek, ‘Quelle horreur!’ It’s not just the rest of the world. Most of the American media are equally stunned. The New York Times wondered what Mr Bush’s next appointment would be:

‘Donald Rumsfeld to negotiate a new set of Geneva conventions? Martha Stewart to run the Securities and Exchange Commission?’[link]

Okay, I get the hang of this game. Sending John Bolton to be UN ambassador is like ...putting Sudan and Zimbabwe on the Human Rights Commission. Or letting Saddam’s Iraq chair the UN conference on disarmament. Or sending a bunch of child-sex fiends to man UN operations in the Congo. And the Central African Republic. And Sierra Leone, and Burundi, Liberia, Haiti, Kosovo, and pretty much everywhere else. All of which happened without the UN fetishists running around shrieking hysterically. Why should America be the only country not to enjoy an uproarious joke at the UN’s expense?[link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Senator Norm Coleman: Kofi Annan Must Go

Here is a statement by Senator Norm Coleman (R) of Minnesota:

           

STATEMENT REGARDING VOLCKER REPORT OF MARCH 29, 2005

March 29th, 2005 - “The Oil-for-Food scandal has now, through the U.N.’s own process of investigation, reached the highest levels of the U.N. The report of Paul Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee has revealed what I concluded many months ago through the initial investigation of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations -- Kofi Annan is responsible for the failed management that resulted in the fraud and abuse of the Oil-for-Food Program. His lack of leadership, combined with conflicts of interest and a lack of responsibility and accountability point to one, and only one, outcome: His resignation. The Volcker Report will show that Kojo Annan lied. He lied to investigators. He lied to the public. And, worse, he lied to his father. While Kofi Annan may not be responsible for the acts of his son, he is responsible for failing to reveal a serious conflict of interest. Specifically, he permitted the U.N. to give massive contracts to the company that employed his son. This egregious conflict of interest is simply inexcusable and further damages the credibility of the organization he leads. In addition, the revelation that the U.N. has agreed to pay the legal fees of Benon Sevan is beyond comprehension. That the U.N. would pay for his defense, and finance it through the very institution he abused, is immoral and unethical. In my opinion, there is probable cause to criminally charge Mr. Sevan for his actions. The fact that the U.N. is reimbursing Mr. Sevan with money that rightfully belongs to the Iraqi people is outrageous. The U.N. is in dire need of reform. That reform, which ranges from the structure of the Security Council to the internal auditing systems, will take strong leadership to make it happen. Mr. Annan is incapable of providing that leadership. His credibility has been seriously undermined by his conflicts of interests and poor management of the Oil for Food program. While Mr. Annan’s reform recommendations made in the last several days are admirable, and an appropriate starting point for discussion, there is no possible way he can be the person responsible for leading the debate over the improvement and implementation of any U.N. reforms. The arrow that has been shot at the heart of his leadership did not come from the quiver of Congress, but his own U.N. investigators. I firmly believe in the role of a strong and vibrant United Nations in the world. I have been hopeful that Mr. Annan would put the interests of the U.N. ahead of his personal interest. To date, he has failed to do so. My hope is that the latest findings from Paul Volker will hasten Mr. Annan’s departure.” [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

We Would Not Want to Live Like This

Here is a very profound article in the Harvard Crimson about Terri Schiavo's situation, via Powerline Blog. The author, who has cerebral palsy, compares his situation with that of Terri Schiavo:

By JOE FORD
  JOE FORD

     

“Misery can only be removed from the world by painless extermination of the miserable.”

—a Nazi writer quoted by Robert J. Lifton in The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

The case of Terri Schiavo has been framed by the media as the battle between the “right to die” and pro-life groups, with the latter often referred to as “right-wing Christians.” Little attention has been paid to the more than twenty major disability rights organizations firmly supporting Schiavo’s right to nutrition and hydration. Terri Schindler-Schiavo, a severely disabled woman, is being starved and dehydrated to death in the name of supposed “dignity.” Polls show that most Americans believe that her death is a private matter and that her removal from a feeding tube—a low-tech, simple and inexpensive device used to feed many sick and disabled people—is a reasonable solution to the conflict between her husband and her parents over her right to life. [link]

Our country has learned that we cannot judge people on the basis of minority status, but for some reason we have not erased our prejudice against disability. One insidious form of this bias is to distinguish cognitively disabled persons from persons whose disabilities are “just” physical. Cognitively disabled people are shown a manifest lack of respect in daily life, as well. This has gotten so perturbing to me that when I fly, I try to wear my Harvard t-shirt so I can “pass” as a person without cognitive disability. (I have severe cerebral palsy, the result of being deprived of oxygen at birth. While some people with cerebral palsy do have cognitive disability, my articulation difference and atypical muscle tone are automatically associated with cognitive disability in the minds of some people.)[link]

The result of this disrespect is the devaluation of lives of people like Terri Schiavo. In the Schiavo case and others like it, non-disabled decision makers assert that the disabled person should die because he or she—ordinarily a person who had little or no experience with disability before acquiring one—“would not want to live like this.” In the Schiavo case, the family is forced to argue that Terri should be kept alive because she might “get better”—that is, might be able to regain or to communicate her cognitive processes. The mere assertion that disability (particularly cognitive disability, sometimes called “mental retardation”) is present seems to provide ample proof that death is desirable. [link]

Besides being disabled, Schiavo and I have something important in common, that is, someone attempted to terminate my life by removing my endotracheal tube during resuscitation in my first hour of life. This was a quality-of-life decision: I was simply taking too long to breathe on my own, and the person who pulled the tube believed I would be severely disabled if I lived, since lack of oxygen causes cerebral palsy. (I was saved by my family doctor inserting another tube as quickly as possible.) The point of this is not that I ended up at Harvard and Schiavo did not, as some people would undoubtedly conclude. The point is that society already believes to some degree that it is acceptable to murder disabled people. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

 

Land for Nothing

Yoram Ettinger spoke on 3/27/05 at the Jewish Russian Center in Brighton in front of a group of about forty people at the invitation of the Land of Israel Committee and the Americans for a Safe Israel. Ambassador Ettinger made a very strong impression on his audience. Below are main points of his speech:

• "Disengagement" is seen as cut and run by the Arab street. This is placed by the US enemies right next to evacuation of US Marines from Beirut in 1983, Somalia in 1993, Israel's flight from South Lebanon in 2000.
• Since Israel left the inside of Gaza it needs three time as many soldiers to protect the border with Gaza
• Americans are fairly indifferent to the idea of "disengagement" -- clear sign of it is complete lack of any financial "carrot" which is usually attached to a  foreign policy desired by US. The whole shameful idea originated in the minds of Israeli politicians whom Yoram Ettinger characterized as being "weak of mind and weak of spine".
• The key and the only solution is the complete elimination of PA and PLO. Hunting for suicide bombers while negotiating with Abbas would be similar to US forces in Iraq hunting for lone terrorists while leaving Saddam in Bagdad.
• The myth of dovish Israel public is just that -- a myth. During last fifteen years when given a choice Israeli always voted for strong people only to have their confidence betrayed by politicians of all parties.
• The question" "What happened to Arik Sharon?" is the same as the question "What happened to the rest of them?" Namely Rabin, Netanyahu, and Barak -- all of them campaigned on a position of strength.
• Finally, the last, but not the least. The Demographic threat about importance of which the left talked so much is a dud, canard, myth, propaganda fabrication. In a way, we, Russian Jews are an unwilling contributor to the impulse of creating this myth. Massive immigration of Russian Jews to Israel forces Palestinians to come up with a response, and they did. They invented a 1.5 million more Palestinians. Yoram Ettinger was one of the authors of a demographic report based exclusively on Palestinian sources which debunked the myth of a demographic threat. (See a related article in the Jerusalem Post, here is a report authored by Ettinger)

posted by: jrtelegraph

Googling for Terrorists

Ynet news via Green Little Footballs:

Google advertises Hamas

    

Terror organization uses search engine to promote website of its military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades  
By Roee Nahmias and Gal Mor

Terror organizations are advancing their recruitment and public relations methods: Internet surfers who enter the word “Hamas” in Arabic in the Google search engine, will view, in addition to the search results, an AdWord message that links directly to the website of the organization’s military faction Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

The link also appears in a search of several other words, such as the “Gaza,” “Palestine,” “Jihad.” This indicates that a Hamas source has paid Google, the most popular search engine on the web, for the advertisement.

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades website holds updated and diverse information: Along with news updates stories from the news agencies, the site also publishes interviews with the organization’s leaders. In one such interview, Hamas member Said Badarna, who is imprisoned in Israel, says, “abductions are the only way to release prisoners being held in Israel.”
Google’s AdWord service offer registered surfers the opportunity to purchase search words and post text messages that are linked to certain websites. The AdWords also appear in G-mail, Google’s email service, and on other websites on Google’s advertising network Adsense.

Moved operations to Eastern Europe

Google has automatic filters that prohibit the posting of links to “problematic” websites, such as gambling and sex websites, but as of now they can only identify English words.

Company Spokeswoman Debbie Frost said “we took care of the matter as soon as Ynet turned to us,” but Ynet has learned the advertisements have not been removed as of yet. Reuven Erlich of The Information Center for Intelligence and Terror says Hamas is the Palestinian terror organization with the most advanced Internet services.

“So, a trend was created whereby Hamas’ Internet quality infrastructure moved to Eastern European countries.”

“In the past, when services provided by American companies to terror organizations were exposed, those companies quickly halted that support,” he says.[link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

 

Courts: Congress and Public Be Damned!

The dean of America's bloggers, Hugh Hewitt weighs in ,in the Weekly Standard article, on the courts' behavior in the Terry Schiavo case:

...people do need to focus on an unintended consequence of the weekend legislation: the illumination--again--of the contempt of the federal courts for their coordinate branches, and the contempt of the left for people of faith.

It was concern over Michael Schiavo's status of guardian that drove the congressional intervention, a concern primarily based on the jarring recognition that he has a girlfriend by whom he has had two children. Most people view that fact and conclude that his judgment may no longer be the judgment of a "husband" in the way that the law anticipated a "husband." Majority leader Tom DeLay bluntly leveled an assessment of Michael Schiavo that seems shared among those who have studied the case in detail:

Well I've got to tell you, I don't have a whole lot of respect for a man that has treated this woman in this way. He has refused to allow her to have therapy. He has refused to even let her have an MRI. For the last five years, five years, she's been kept in a hospice and every time they've asked just to take her outside, which they can do, he has refused. She's not been outside, I think, for the last three years. . . . I think his abuse and neglect of

his position as guardian is outrageous. And, and, . . . and partnered with this judge that has allowed him to treat Terry like this for the last eleven years is outrageous. And my question is, what kind of man is he? [link]

So Congress passed a statute that was intended to force a new trial on the merits of Terri's parents' concern that their daughter's wishes were not being honored. The president signed it. DeLay summarized the intent of Congress in his Sunday press conference: "We are confident this compromise will restore nutrition and hydration to Mrs. Schiavo as long as that appeal endures. . . . Obviously, the judge will have to put the feeding tube back in or she could die before the case is heard." [link]

The courts refused to obey Congress's instructions for a new discovery in the Schiavo case. They also refused to order an injuction for the removal of the feeding tube until the end of the discovery. This is a big contrast with the courts' behavior in the cases involving endangered species. Hugh Hewitt continues:

In the case of the Endangered Species Act, the courts have built the standard of review from the statute's breadth and Congressional intent. I cannot think of a more clear-cut expression of Congressional intent and urgency than the extraordinary intervention of last weekend and the clear pronouncements of many legislators on the matter of Terri Schiavo. They assumed the federal district court would stay Terri's starvation pending the outcome of the de novo proceeding they had mandated, even as convicted murderers have their executions stayed as federal courts process their appeals from state proceedings.

Thus the courts, in the case of species conflicts, have built a standard governing the issuance of stays that was not on the face of the statute, but have refused to enforce the standard that was clearly intended in the case of Terri Schiavo. [link]

And Hugh Hewitt concludes:

Whenever the collective attention of the country turns to one drama, all sorts of unexpected revelations occur. In this case, we see confirmed two longstanding assumptions of the center-right: Courts will often wrongly defy Congress and the president; and a large section of the left has nothing but contempt for people of faith. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Jewish Law About Terry Schiavo's Case

Traditional Jewish Authorities are in agreement about Terry Schiavo's situation:

Rabbi Avi Shafran of the fervently Orthodox Agudath Israel of America said the Schiavo case is “straightforward from a Jewish perspective: The most important point from a halachic standpoint is that a compromised life is still a life.”

“In the Schiavo case, you’re not dealing with a patient in extremis,” he said, noting that until her feeding tube was removed, Schiavo was not dying.

In halachah, there is a category for a person at the edge of death; the rules for such a person, called a goses, are complicated.

“There are times when certain medical intervention is halachically contraindicated,” Shafran said. “There may be times when it’s OK not to shock a heart back into beating, not to administer certain drugs. You do not prolong the act of dying.”

But Schiavo was not a goses, Shafran said. Instead, before the tube was removed she “had the exact same halachic status as a baby or a demented person. Like a baby, she was helpless, could not feed herself and was not able to communicate in any meaningful way. But a life is a life.”

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, the central arm of modern Orthodoxy, agreed that from a halachic perspective the Schiavo case is straightforward.

“It’s not permitted to do anything actively that would stop the process of a person’s staying alive,” he said. “In this case, that would be withdrawing a feeding tube, which is tantamount to starving a person to death.”

Like Shafran, Weinreb said the wishes of the patient or the family are not relevant.

“It might have a bearing on whether new measures are undertaken, but once a person is on a support system, removing it is not possible,” Weinreb said.

“Doing something to actively interfere with a person’s ability to continue to live technically is murder,” he said. “I can’t imagine a scenario that would make removing the feeding tube permissible.” [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph