CNN.com - Schiavo parents back in federal court - Mar 25, 2005
Wingnuts are imploding everywhere. Let's hope that they quietly slink back to their hidey-holes and wait for the next big media circus.
TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- As Terri Schiavo begins her seventh day without food or water, her parents are continuing their desperate fight to keep the severely brain-damaged woman alive.
A U.S. District Court judge is now deliberating the parents' latest plea. The same federal judge, James Whittemore, earlier this week refused to order Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted. A four-hour hearing before Whittemore ended late Thursday, with no ruling announced.
Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, turned to Whittemore's court hours after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected their pleas to intervene in the case.
Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, who is acting as a spokesman for the Schindlers, said their new motion raises "evidentiary issues that were ignored in the first crack at federal court."
Meanwhile, Schindler supporters were planning an all-day Good Friday prayer vigil at the Florida governor's mansion as part of an effort to persuade Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene, despite his comments Thursday that he cannot overstep his gubernatorial powers.
Terri Schiavo's parents have drawn support from religious and political conservatives and Bush, who said Thursday he would do "everything within my power" to prevent Schiavo's death.
Terry, founder of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, warned Republicans there would be "hell to pay" if Terri Schiavo dies.
"You can bet that there will be people that might just lose their jobs when this is over," Terry said.
Good. I have a list. Tom, Jeb, George, Bill, Rick...that's just for starters. Yes, you guys go bite the hand that has fed you. Start your own party, that will teach them!
What frightens me is they are whipping these people up in a frenzy, and things might get ugly. Maybe being "Good Friday" and all, they will chill a bit.
Protesters, most of them supporting the Schindlers, have gathered outside the hospice. Emotions over the case are running high, and security has been tight.
Law enforcement officials detonated a suspicious backpack Thursday night that was found leaning against the federal courthouse where Whittemore was conducting the latest hearing on the Schiavo case. Investigators cleared about a two-block perimeter as a precaution.
The woman who had left the pack later confirmed that there was nothing dangerous in it.
In addition, an Illinois man was arrested Thursday after police said he robbed a Seminole, Florida, gun store as part of an attempt to "rescue Terri Schiavo."
Michael W. Mitchell, 20, was facing charges of attempted armed robbery, aggravated assault and criminal mischief, said Marianne Pasha, spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
The Rev. Patrick Mahoney -- a Christian Defense Coalition representative who is frequently on hand across the country for controversial matters of concern to religious conservatives -- called for Bush to send Florida law enforcement officers to "come in and take Terri."
"A citizen of your state is being brutally murdered," he said. "You need to intervene."
Mahoney was organizing the prayer vigil Friday. "We are here on Good Friday to ask Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene to save the life of Terri Schiavo," he said in a statement. "The governor has it within his power to rescue Terri. Her life is in the governor's hand."
On CNN, Mahoney contended that "the courts do not have the final say" in legal matters, adding that he hopes Bush "would have the courage" to intervene.
"If it results in a constitutional crisis for the state, then so be it," he said.
It is that kind of rhetoric the rouses the rabble. If shit happens today I want this guy arrested for inciting mayhem.
My hope is that Terri will go in peace, and these bastards will just go away.