Yall watch out - my Beautimus Bama Belle is now officially lurking in these hallowed halls!

*OUCH* (she hit me - HEH)

I ask you to really envision a group like NRA or Newt Gingrich organizing a get out the vote effort for Republicans with the slightest hint of activities such as ACORN is doing.

Think Jesse Jackson, Florida 2000.

Sad but true.

Yes John Lewis personally went through the civil rights struggle but he is a freaking hack. Think McCain would get a pass if he harbored such hatred for the Vietnamese?

Wow - this guy could be the anti-Christ. I can’t believe he’s getting away with all of this.

He claims his mother, the atheist, was a Christian.

Vic, how many news stories can you dig up involving voter fraud by Republicans or Republican Groups?

Vic, how many friends of McCain’s can you point to who were terrorists or have had close terrorist connections?

Vic, how many Democrats have lost their seats in the House or Senate in the last 20 years due to misconduct, or even perceived misconduct? How many Republican?

Vic, Obama wins in Nov, democrats will still be losers. It’s just that the whole country will lose something too….at least for a while.

You’re gross. Bad satire there. Respect man, respect.

Now WalMart goofs are funny.

But McCain must have the will to engage in this fight or he will lose badly — we will lose badly.

By all means: engage, engage, engage.

Isn’t that what you wanted to say, Peddler?

That’s the funniest comment I’ve seen in a while.

G’night.

Doctors everyday in every hospital in this country tell people their loved ones are dead, almost dead, near dead, gonna be dead, etc, etc.

They tell them their loved one is “brain-dead”, “cardiac-dead” or “irretrievably neurologically damaged” according to some rather unspecific criteria.

Why should they be able to do that ?

Why shouldn’t they be required to ground those statements in some mutually agreed upon guidelines ?

Why should these doctors be free to play with the rather loose and uncertain facts at the time ?

You tell me.

i have nothing to say

There should be some kind of standard, just so everyone’s on the same page. That standard should define death, or different “levels of death”, but the standard won’t determine what action should be taken.

Picture a 12-inch ruler, with various states of unconsciousness on it. 1 is moderately sleepy, a heavy coma is maybe a 9, decapitation is a 12. Various in-between states are fixed at the in-between points.

With that kind of scale, patients and doctors are on the same page. Families can plan better. It’s just a way of measuring, with the action (pull the plug, do a transplant, whatever) still in the hands of the patient and his family.

You might object that such a scale could be subject to abuse, and that it could be impossible to precisely define the measurement. Both might be true. But an agreed-upon, albeit imperfect, standard is better than the current system.

As things are now, the ruler is first seen when families have to make these tough calls, and it’s blank. And the clock is ticking.