Troxler, St. Pete Times: " With All Laws Flattened, Where Will We Hide?"

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/22/Columns/With_all_laws_flatten.shtml

By HOWARD TROXLER, Times Columnist
Published March 22, 2005

The end justifies the means.

When you have enough power, you can tell the courts to get lost, you can overrule the self-government of an entire state, you can obliterate the rule of law.

It does not matter that Florida's courts ruled that Terri Schiavo expressed the wish not to be kept alive artificially. We are entitled to ignore court rulings.

Neither does it matter that the doctors say that her brain has largely turned to fluid. We may dismiss these facts with a wave of the hand, or a sound bite on CNN.

Congress knows all. The federal government knows all. The strutting Tom DeLay and the unctuous Bill Frist know more than all the judges and doctors combined.

They are cynically armed with their internal memo about how many votes they are going to get out of the Christians. Some members of Congress speechified without knowing how to pronounce Terri Schiavo's name, or the most basic facts.

Tom DeLay's conduct is odious. He represents everything bad about Congress. His principal pastime is raising large amounts of money from wicked people in return for hurting the public good.

more..worth reading in its entirety

[wryter2000]

1. That's truly awesome

You need to read to the end, for sure. I e-mailed him to thank him for it.

[bpilgrim]

2. What would you do,cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you - where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast - man's laws, not God's - and if you cut them down - and you're just the man to do it - d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.

from "A Man for All Seasons"

good read :toast:

peace

[mcscajun]

3. Yes, I'd give the devil the benefit of the law, for my own safety's sake."

Always. Forever.

Nice touch of him to cite what is probably the best exposition of the rule of law in any movie, ever.

[Briar]

12. This is why Guantanamo is an abomination

It flattens the law.

[satya]

4. Definitely a "must read"--excellent! Thanks for the post.

:kick:

[scarletlib]

5. thanks for a great article

[enough]

6. Superb article.

Nominating for "Greatest." One more vote will give this a lot of exposure.


snip>

If you are cheering because Congress acted in the midnight hour to "save" Terri, be sure of what you are cheering for.

You are applauding a Congress for throwing out the rulings of the courts, throwing out the due process of the states, and substituting its own will.

The difference between me and so-called "conservatives" is that when I say the power of government is a dangerous beast to be feared, I actually mean it.

snip>

[unhappycamper]

7. sent him email - thanks

[lostnfound]

8. kick nt

[struggle4progress]

13. and again

:kick:

[teryang]

9. Part of this disrespect for the Constitution involves disrespect

...for the Congress as the representative body of government. By compromising the institution, by getting it to lurch to and fro with the latest commands like a circus dog act, the Rove PR command post, reduces its status to that of joke in a state ruled by a party apparatus rather than the seat of sovereignty. The party is now pre-eminent over state and Constitutional processes are irrelevant.

This impotence of Congress, the inability to fulfill its constitutional role as a sovereign institution, is a prototypical sign of developing totalitarianism. The institution is held in contempt now even by those who wish desperately that its spineless and corrupt members would actually stop damaging the public interest and do their job, which is representing people not corporations.

The coups of 2000, 911, and 2002, reduced Congress to a mere image of its former self, its members are not elected representatives in the true sense any longer, but for the most part, impotent and despicable actors.

[nedbal]

10. Free Republic Opinion Poll:

Would you approve of the President taking extraordinary measures to secure Terri's safety in defiance of the courts, i.e., ordering Federal Marshalls to take her into protective custody - things that may not be considered currently within Presidential powers? Or, maybe purposely defying federal and state judges rulings doing other preemptive actions to help?

Composite Opinion
Yes 49.8% 603
No 35.3% 427
Maybe 7.8% 95
Undecided 4.2% 51
Pass 2.9% 35
100.0%
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/poll?poll=87;results=2

[flpoljunkie]

11. Troxler responds to the record outpouring of emails he's received...

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/24/Columns/Schiavo_column_draws_.shtml

By HOWARD TROXLER, Times Columnist
Published March 24, 2005

By my last count, 1,085 people had written e-mails in reply to Tuesday's column criticizing Congress for intervening in the Terri Schiavo case.

Of those 1,085 people, only 40 disagreed.

Another 269 people left voice messages. Of those callers, only 13 disagreed.

The total number of people who responded sets an all-time record. No previous topic has come close - not gay marriage, not flag burning, not even cat-and-dog stories. Nothing.

more...Troxler quotes from various emails he received