Who's financing the Schindlers humongous legal bills?

[moobu2]

This is from an article written by Jon B. Eisenberg who's an attorney and has worked on the Terri Schiavo case, he's filed briefs for a group of medical ethicists and has written about the case over the years. This is just the portion of the article concerning some money figures but there's a lot more info documenting the right wing influence and financing..etc..

Schindler lawyer Pat Anderson "was paid directly" by the anti-abortion Life Legal Defense Foundation, which "has already spent over $300,000 on this case," according to the foundation's Web site. Much of the support for Life Legal Defense Foundation, in turn, comes from the Alliance Defense Fund, an anti-gay rights group which collected more than $15 million in private donations in 2002 and admits to having spent money on the Schiavo case "in the six figures," according to a recent article in the Palm Beach Post. Mediatransparency.org states that between 1994 and 2002, the Alliance Defense Fund received $142,000 from Philanthropy Roundtable members that include the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation and the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation.

Wesley Smith and Rita Marker also work for organizations that get funding from Roundtable members. Smith is a paid senior fellow with the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank that advocates the teaching of creationist "intelligent design" theory in public schools. Between 1993 and 1997, the Discovery Institute received $175,000 from the Bradley Foundation. Marker is executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia, which lobbies against physician-assisted suicide. In 2001, Marker's organization received $110,390 from the Randolph Foundation, an affiliate of the Smith Richardson family.

Roundtable members also played a role in financing the Bush v. Schiavo litigation.

The Family Research Council, which uses its annual $10 million budget to lobby for prayer in public schools and against gay marriage, filed an amicus curiae brief in Bush v. Schiavo supporting Gov. Bush, at the same time its former president, attorney Kenneth Connor, was representing the governor in that litigation. Between 1992 and 2000, the council received $215,000 from the Bradley Foundation.

Another amicus brief backing Bush was filed by a coalition of disability rights organizations that included the National Organization on Disability and the World Institute on Disability. The former received $810,000 between 1991 and 2002 from the Scaife Family Foundations, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, and the JM Foundation; the latter received $20,000 in 1997 from the JM Foundation.

Blog.Bioethics.net

[MessiahRp]

1. Can't Tom Delay start a case-specific PAC

for this that illegally pays their legal fees? I mean it works for him and HE never faces legal reprecussion.

Rp

[LynneSin]

2. Yeah but who is paying for that special session of congress...

..and Bush's special trip home from Texas on AF1 at $34k/hour?

US!!!

:puke:

[punpirate]

3. Why am I not surprised? n/t

[rodeodance]

4. thanks for the article--I was wondering myself.

[ClintonTyree]

5. So the rabid right religioloonies have their.......................

mark all over this. And they're certainly getting their money's worth of publicity from it. Does anyone honestly think these "think tanks" and creationist foundations gives a rat's ass about Terri Shiavo? Or is she just a pawn in their larger game of controlling public sentiment and what's being taught in our classrooms?

I'm willing to bet it's the later. Oh, what political hay they can make from this! And don't forget about the movie rights. Mel Gibson is well positioned to direct this ghoulish saga. I can see the fundies now, lines around the block to see, "The Passion of Terri Shiavo".

Sickening.

[snippy]

6. Well, since the republican god sent Terry Schiavo to help republicans

gain more power according to Tom DeLay, the republican god is probably also picking up the tab.