Jesse Jackson using Schaivo to talk about improving Health Care

[cidliz2004]

Medicaid and other such issues. He is using this case to communicate with the American People as a whole that we DO need more not less Government aid to the health of our nation. Say what you will about Jesse, but he does care about Democratic issues. Just because we may not always agree with him, he does get the spotlight and he does plead our case. I just wish he would leave MJ alone though!

[Liberal Veteran]

1. As if she hasn't been exploited enough?

Geez.....

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Exploiting her for nationalized healthcare would be great!

[WilliamPitt]

2. No, he's a vain whore DINO pig scum bastard

That's what I've read here lately, anyway.

:eyes:

[iconoclastNYC]

16. Oh please.

What i've read is he's a publicity whore, and it seems to be the case.

Its really sad when people can't deal with a little bit of criticism and have to resort to distorting the criticism into something like you just said.

[Tomee450]

24. Jesse Jackson is not

a publicity whore. He accepted the invitation of the parents and you want to fault him for that. That's just plain ridiculous. No minister would deny the request of grieving parents. The attacks on Jackson have been disgusting. He has spent much of his time trying to get voters to the polls to vote for democrat. He usually supports the Democratic party's agenda yet when he disagrees on a certain issue he is spoken of horribly. Jesse does not deserve the vitriol being hurled at him in this forum. Maybe the African Americans who believe that they are not really respected by the Democratic Party are correct. Maybe we are only being used. We are only valuable if we toe the line and readily discarded when we don't. Thoroughly disgusted.

[FreedomAngel82]

26. It was a private personal matter

and he should've said thank you and declined and butt out.

[iconoclastNYC]

33. So you are going to leave the Democratic Party

because some people on a message board disagree with you on Rev. Jackson's motivations?

Thin skinned, aren't we?

[ClassWarrior]

19. That was a DUDQ cameo appearance by...

...by international celeb WRPitt, Ladies & Germs!

:applause:

NGU.

[WilliamPitt]

20. Thank you, thank you

:)

[RevCheesehead]

23. Bravo! Encore!!!

:applause:

[elehhhhna]

4. I caught that! Good for Jesse. Sure he's a camera hog, BUT

he brought it around to something relevent.

[Bouncy Ball]

5. Well, good deal.

At least have this case maybe help do some good for everyone? We can hope, although I despair of health care for all while repukes are in charge. It won't happen. But I'm sure glad he's talking about it.

[FreedomAngel82]

27. I doubt it

It won't happen. I've talked to some republicans on another board and asked why we can't have national health care and they all claim anybody can have health care ( :eyes: ) and that we don't need it and all that crap. They would never have it.

[JDPriestly]

6. He is right to point to the health care issues.

Terri Schiavo's predicament was caused by bad health habits, poor health education and medical malpractice. Jesse Jackson is absolutely right to point out that poor health care is to blame for her death.

[cidliz2004]

9. I think that he also was saying that Terri had received such excellent

health care and because of that she is a relatively healthy person. He tried to make the point that ALL Americans should be able to receive the quality of health care the Terri did. By funding Medicaid...All people could have such care.

[davidinalameda]

14. she was bulimic

that's not a bad health habit

that's a mental condition

[atreides1]

7. He was used

The biggest problem is that this was nothing more then the Republicans pandering to the Fundies, the administration will still go ahead with its' plans to cut Medicaid and other social programs.

Reverend Jackson let himself be dragged into nothing more then a circus.

[Dogmudgeon]

8. He never acted like part of the freak show, though

I wasn't too disturbed by his behavior. He's not a big fan of abortion, either, but at least he acted with some dignity.

C'mon, someone paraded a costumed chicken around outside the hospice.

I don't have too much of a problem with people who may have thought that Terri Schiavo should have been kept alive. The freak show crowd is the group I blame -- Tom Delay, Frank Pallone, the procession of right-wing barking heads, and the MSM driven by its lust for "ratings".

--p!
But the chicken gets a pass.

[sundancekid]

10. would have been FAR MORE EFFECTIVE if JJ was outraged at baby Sun death

since that was exactly the point -- a black infant got his plug pulled (over the objections of his mother) -- because ol' chimp in his guv days in Texas approved a law to do so if the family could not pay hospital.

Jeeze, Jesse, timing and appropriate rule of law application is not mere accident or fluff ... imho

[iconoclastNYC]

17. No cameras there.

He has to go where the cameras are.

And the MSM wants the cameras on the fundies so they all know how important they are, and how they have to defend life. You know because Democrats just hate life.

[DARE to HOPE]

11. Hey, this was the issue of the day, annointed by the MSM...

...I love Jesse, whatever his human failings. And right now I think he is playing a "common ground" healing part between the polarized parts of this family, and a good spokesman to the country on the host of relevant issues at this time.

Certainly better on the airwaves than Randall Terry and the rest of the nut crew.

[Walt Starr]

12. He's lost me forever

No respect for the man ever again.

[davidinalameda]

13. so he joined this circus to talk about health care?

silly me

I guess he wasn't just a plain media whore but a media whore with a cause

[Liberal Veteran]

15. I tend to agree, but of the media whores in this....

Nader was the one who really whored it up in this case.

[davidinalameda]

18. Nader has some pathological need for the spotlight

more than Jackson does, if that's possible

[hector459]

21. Whatever, Jesse has put his life on the line many times to benefit others

Haven't seen or heard of anyone here doing the same.

[DARE to HOPE]

22. Amen, brother.

[republicansareevil]

25. So he's using her for political purposes?

How is that better than the Republicans? Whatever other good JJ may have done in his life, he did the wrong thing here, and it's a big mark against him in my book. He didn't just comfort the parents, he took a political stand that was either ill-informed or very antithetical to Democratic principles. He aligned himself with Randall Terry of Operation Rescue, and on top of all that he gave the Republicans a "gift" by diverting attention in the middle of their implosion. I've lost a great deal of respect for this man, and it will take a hell of a lot to earn it back.

[underpants]

28. WHOOPS! Look what they asked in

Good go Jesse

[Malva Zebrina]

29. OK let me see if I have it straight

Huge brouhaha over the removal of a feeding tube in a woman who has been without the use of a cognitive brain for fifteen years.

Has had the feeding tube removed twice only to have it put back in

No Jesse Jackson on screen anywhere and no deLay, and no nutcase religious cult fanatics protesting for the past ten years.

Parents, staunch Catholics, with more than one Catholic priest available outside every day protesting, incredibly calls a Protestant minister to give them hope, faith and spiritual counseling and he just happens to be a Democrat, supposedly since he has run on the ticket, and just happens to be a politically connected minister whose presence is certain to be noted on camera. I mean they could have called Rev. Brown from the local Lutheran or Methodist church if spiritual counseling from the Protestant side is what they desired.

Jackson then arrives in a white stretch limo, after never having made a statement before on this case in all of it's history, to give hope and faith and to pray with the staunch Catholic parents and publically announces it is wrong to remove the feeding tube from Mrs. Schiavo, in spite of the shenanigans that went on in congress, in spite of the flouting of the law, in spite of Jeb Bush's ordering state police to ignore the ruling of the courts, in spite of the Supreme Court of the US refuses to hear the case, he arrives and appears to think that dissing all of that is just fine and dandy with him.

Smells to me

and now, we are to forgive his hypocrisy because he takes the opportunity to laud the benefits of Medicaid that kept this woman , to the tune of 80,000 dollars a year, alive but dead.

I think he just stuck his foot into it, because 80,000 dollars of tax money per year spent on keeping dead people with a diagnosis of permanent vegetative state, alive by artificial means against their wishes, could be better spent on more pressing health care matters, and NOT spent to propagate matters of religious beliefs that have as their goal, usurping the right of the individual to have a say in their care should they be kept alive by artificial means, and the right of the husband to supercede that of any parent.

Apparently, the good Rev. Jackson has realized his mistake in his eagerness, and is now shifting toward a more noble posture. He is a nothing in the party. However I cannot accept that the new posture cancels out the behavior of the past two days from Rev. Jackson.

I regret that the whole party seems to have become nothings, when Jackson is the sole defender (turned to the religious right) of the Democratic ideals and the party.

[sandnsea]

30. Look at it this way

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton appealed to the black religious community.

Kept the Democratic Party from being labeled the party of death.

And managed to slip in a few words about health care.

The 11th Circuit pretty much took care of the constitutional issues, and most moderate Dems & Pubs are already there on that issue.

Moderates don't care what Jesse & Al have to say anyway.

Sounds like a win all the way around.

[Malva Zebrina]

31. No I won't look at it that way

Are you aware of the polls? Polls that demonstrated that 80% of people thought that polilticians should stay out--that government should stay out and thought the feeding tube should be removed?

I am going to make a reasonable assumption that these figures would also hold for the black community,as there is no evidence that the black community thought the opposite.

and, much as I appreciate where you are coming from re the black community, keep in mind that the whole comunity of Democrats, except for those who call themselves Democrats but are Republicans underneath it all, has put forth NO ONE to keep the party from being labeled the "party of death" and Jackson has little clout to rescue the party from that accusation.

According to some arm chair analysts,however, this was a brilliant move on the part of the invisible Democrats.

I have my doubts but it remains to be seen as I think this is not over yet.

[sandnsea]

32. Well you don't HAVE to

I didn't mean that.

I don't know what the polls are from the black community. I only know that it's been reported that black representatives didn't oppose the bill because of objections from the religious in the black community.

The right uses people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to label the entire Democratic Party. They can't this time.

And no, it isn't over. But at least we're not damaged too terribly much heading into the judicial fight, and that's what this is about.