Help Pass Terri's Law

The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow (March 16)at 2 p.m.
Time is running out! "Terri's Law" must be passed by both Houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bush before Friday afternoon.
Please Take Action Today!

Terri Schiavo is subject to a court order for the removal of her nutrition and hydration tubes this Friday, March 18 at 1 pm…Unless something is done to stop it.
As human beings it is OUR responsibility to do all we can to save Terri.

E-mail, fax or telephone your Senators and Representatives and urge them to speed this law to the President's desk right away. (It's too late to write letters.)

Emphasize that time is running out, that Terri will suffer terribly if she is starved to death. Ask them to hurry.

The Susan B. Anthony list should deliver your request directly to your congresspeople but it didn't work for me.

Contact House members first: At this link at the House of Representatives site has a place where you put in your zip code and it takes you right to your rep's page.

Terri Schiavo deserves the same legal protection as convicted criminals. Death row inmates currently have better Constitutional due process than disabled persons. Click Here to read Terri's Story.


Terri Schiavo has never had her own attorney in court! Disabled individuals like Terri have the right to independent legal counsel and effective representation.


Help SAVE TERRI Today! The passage of the Incapacitated Person's Legal Protection Act is the last chance pro-life Americans have to save Terri Schiavo from her court ordered starvation and dehydration beginning in just 3 days!!
Time is of the essence. Act Now before it's too late.

Please do this now -- right away -- and help save Terri from court-ordered murder.

Your DOE At Work: Putting Health Care at the Discretion of the French

The Fast Flux Test Facility in Washington State is the only nuclear research facility in the United States with the capability of producing isotopes. It is being shut down by the Department of Energy. This world-class nuclear reactor is about to be dismantled and when it is, it will take 20 years to re-activate it.

In the meantime, the United States will have no (0..zero...zilch) ability to produce nuclear isotopes, which are now used to produce medicines used in curing cancer and used in diagnostic machines and procedures.

Because of the limited life-expectancy of isotopes, importing them from the other existing facility that can produce them – located in France – is completely impractical, but we import 90% of what we use from France as it is. By the time they get here they are considerably weakened.

Although the FFTF performed flawlessly for a decade, in 1990 the Department of Energy ruled that it should be shut down because there was no defined “long-term mission” to justify the cost.

Without this facility, America is at the mercy of France. Remembering the eagerness France has demonstrated recently to protect the United States from its terrorist enemies, that would seem foolish. Also, since FFTF has not been producing isotopes and the US imports almost all from Europe, we had a serious problem after 9/11, when the supply was disrupted.

And look what else that facility was engaged in when it was shut down: completed in 1978, it tested materials and fuel components for fast breeder and fusion reactors under actual operating conditions; it was used to trans-mute high-level nuclear waste, making nuclear waste recyclable; it tested space nuclear fuel systems and produced 60 special isotopes for life-saving medical use and for industry.

Nuclear medicine does not exist without isotopes. Importing isotopes from France and Canada is expensive (and adds to rising health costs in America) and, as previously mentioned, the isotopes are weaker than those we could produce here. There are 36,000 diagnostic tests made daily that use medical isotopes.

The Fast Flux Test Facility was the first reactor to produce electric power from nuclear fission. When it was shut down, the FFTF was working on ways to bring down the costs of producing nuclear power (already the cheapest and most environmentally clean method of producing electricity) and on new safety procedures for reactors.

One of the newest and most dramatic discoveries in medicine involves a new drug, developed with isotopes, that is able to specifically target only cancer cells, leaving surrounding cells untouched. One of these, a medicine to combat cancer of the lymph nodes, is called Bexxar. It delivers radiation directly to tumor cells. Follicular lymphoma is incurable and affects 15,000 American adults a year. Patients can choose whether to use Bexxar or undergo chemotherapy and its grueling side effects.

You can help by signing the petition at: http://www.usa-cargo.info/petition/index.php

Please write your newspapers and legislators on state and national levels to ask that they support efforts to stop the dismantling of FFTF. At the very least, putting the health of Ameircan citizens at the mercy of other nations like France and Canada, should be reason enough to save the facility.

For more information:

The Importance of Medical Isotopes: http://www.medicalisotopes.org/
Nuclear Power for Space: http://www.space.com/news/nasa_nuclear_020205.html

So There WERE WMDs in Iraq, After All

In a stunning about-face, the New York Times reported Sunday that when the U.S. attacked Iraq in March 2003, Saddam Hussein possessed "stockpiles of monitored chemicals and materials," as well as sophisticated equipment to manufacture nuclear and biological weapons, which was removed to "a neighboring state" before the U.S. could secure the weapons sites.

The U.N.'s Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission [UNMOVIC] "has filed regular reports to the Security Council since last May," the paper said, "about the dismantlement of important weapons installations and the export of dangerous materials to foreign states."

"Officials of the commission and the [International] Atomic Energy Agency have repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to report on what it knows of the fate of the thousands of pieces of monitored equipment and stockpiles of monitored chemicals and materials."

Last fall, IAEA director Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed that "nuclear-related materials" had gone missing from monitored sites, calling on Iraqi officials to start the process of accounting for the missing stockpiles still ostensibly under the agency's supervision.

Quoting Sami al-Araji, Iraq's deputy minister of industry since the 1980s, the Times said: "It appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery away."

Calling the operation "sophisticated," Dr. Araji said the removal effort featured "cranes and the lorries, and they depleted the whole sites," adding, "They knew what they were doing."

The top Iraqi defense official said equipment capable of making parts for missiles as well as chemical, biological and nuclear arms was missing from 8 or 10 sites that were the heart of Iraq's WMD program.

Dr. Araji said that if the equipment had left the country, its most likely destination was a neighboring state.

The United Nations, worried that the nuclear material and equipment could be used in clandestine bomb production, has been hunting for it throughout the Middle East, largely unsuccessfully, the Times said.

If the United Nations has been hunting for the weapons all this time, then the UN Reps lied during the recent American Presidential campaign when they denied that there were any WMDs in Iraq.

Help Save An American Treasure

America is a land of treasures: our National Parks, the museums and monuments of Washington DC, Lady Liberty raising her lamp before the Golden Door, the Golden Gate Bridge for that matter, and many, many more. But none are more valuable a treasure than the Fast Flux Test Facility in Hanford, Washington.

What's that, you ask? Well, it's a world-class nuclear research reactor. The only facility in the United States with the capability to test fuel and components for advanced nuclear breeder and fusion reactors, to expand our knowledge of neutrons and, perhaps more immediately necessary, to produce medical isotopes.

But in 1990, the United States Department of Energy decided to close it down because someone in charge couldn't imagine that it could be useful in the future. As DOE put it, there was no long-term mission to justify its operating costs. Unfortunately, that kind of blind shortsightedness has prevailed over the past 15 years and soon the installation will be totally disabled.

Did you know:
Nuclear energy reduces greenhouse gas emissions -- in 1999 20 percent of all energy consumed was environmentally clean nuclear energy?
That much nuclear waste can be recycled and used again?
That nuclear isotopes used in medicines and diagnostic procedures are produced only from the FFTF? Canada produces some medical radioisotopes but it does not supply the US with crucial research isotopes or a huge and diverse array of medical and industrial isotopes that we need.

When the FFTF opened in 1982, it tested materials and fuel components for fast breeder and fusion reactors under actual operating conditions so their performance was thoroughly tested before they were built into new reactors. It was used to transmute high-level nuclear waste, it tested space fuel systems and produced 60 special isotopes for medical and industrial use.

Nuclear reactors are an efficient way to make steam from water, which turns turbines that turn generators and produce energy. A single pellet of uranium fuel (1.6 grams) generates as much electricity as 6.15 tons of coal. Necessary heat comes from nuclear fission -- consecutive chain reactions of neutrons. FFTF has the same characteristics as that type of nuclear reactor but it was used to test components and fuel to better understand neutrons.

Nuclear energy and nuclear research are of vital interest to the social and economic welfare of America. But unfortunately not immune to politics and politicians. In 1993 the billion-dollar facility was ordered closed. Then, on the possibility that it might be used to produce trillium for the weapons program, it was put on "stand-by" by the US Department of Energy. In 1998, the shutdown proceeded because the trillium wasn't needed. A deadline of June 30, 2005 was set to finish draining the last of the sodium.

Once that is done, the facility cannot be restarted.

Does America need the Fast Flux Test Facility?

Only if America needs inexpensive, clean, nonpetroleum energy.
Only if America needs medicines and medical diagnostical procedures to save thousands of lives every day.
Only if America needs to learn more about the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Only if America doesn't want to find itself at the mercy of France and Canada for desperately needed isotopes from which to make life-saving medicines.

The old excuse that there's no use for the facility is no longer valid. A newspaper report says,

potential users of isotopes believe the reactor would be able to produce large quantities of high-quality isotopes at a reasonable cost because many missions could be carried out at once.

Most respondents said they would purchase a sizable percentage of their isotopes from FFTF. They include four research centers: Children's Hospital in Boston, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Garden State Cancer Center in Belleville, N.J., and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. In addition four companies using isotopes for medical or other products said they would buy a large portion of them from FFTF.

Three medical centers doing research using isotopes for medical uses indicated there was a dire need for sufficient quantities of high-quality isotopes.

Some of the most promising research uses radioactive isotopes, which can be produced at reactors such as FFTF, to target cancer more selectively than more conventional radiation treatments. The isotopes and their carriers can be used to find and kill cancer cells that have migrated throughout the body and can kill cancer cells with less damage to nearby healthy cells.
The survey also found that several companies would prefer to buy their isotopes from U.S. sources. They include Syncor, a 2,500-employee company that distributes medical isotopes to 146 nuclear pharmacies around the world.

The report also noted a previous finding by Frost and Sullivan -- that demand for U.S. medical isotopes is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 12.4 percent.

Some of the potential for growth is based on isotopes becoming available for research and then products being developed and marketed. That's reflected in the growth of sales of yttrium 90, an isotope obtained from nuclear waste at Hanford. Sales of yttrium 90 increased from less than $250,000 in 1996 to about $4.5 million in 2001.

We can all help put this reactor back into business. Write your congressman/woman, your senators, Sec'y Abraham of the US Department of Energy, newspapers, radio, television, magazines and ask them to support the reactivation of America's only Fast Flux Test Facility. A grass roots movement will make a difference.

Great Minds, They Say. . . (Big Grin)

but I have to concede that Scott's is greater. This is humor, folks:

Janet Reno Rescues Terri Schiavo in Daring Raid
by Scott Ott

(2005-03-11) -- Shortly after midnight last night, former Attorney General Janet Reno and a squad of retired agents from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) stormed a Florida nursing home and rescued Terri Schiavo from her impending death by starvation which had been slated to begin March 18.

Ms. Reno, in helmet, KEVLAR® and jackboots, led the daring raid in a fashion reminiscent of the ATF rescue of Elian Gonzalez in April 2000.

"The power of government must be used for the good of humanity," said Ms. Reno. "But the decline of respect for life, especially among the judiciary, has forced us to take this decisive action to save Terri's life. As always, we Democrats have compassion for the helpless."

Mrs. Schiavo is being held in an undisclosed location pending an attempt by businessman Robert Herring to ransom the brain-damaged woman from her doting husband, Michael, for $1 million.

Ms. Reno denied accusations that she is merely trying to upstage Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in preparation for her own gubernatorial run.

I have to admit it never occured to me that a Democrat might actually HELP someone.

If It Were Up To Me

It makes me sick to know that Terri will die in a week because an American court won't listen to all the evidence in the case. If it were up to me, and it's not, I would do something about it.

Remember little Elian Gonzalez? The US Government stole his only chance to grow up in freedom -- a chance his Mother wanted for him so badly that she risked his life and gave hers to give it to him. The government of the land of the free, where liberty lifts her lamp beside the golden door so that whoever comes here can have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--that government determined that imprisonment in a totalitarian regime was best for the child. So they burst into little Evian's Florida bedroom in the dark of night and whisked him away to grow up in a land of tyranny and oppression.

Now I don't happen to think that Death is a land of tyranny. As a matter of fact, I have long suspected that when we die we will discover it wasn't a punishment at all, but quite the opposite. However, since we know only what we have, we should, we must favor life.

But here comes the United States government again, in the form of the Court, and determines that murder is the best for Terri. Not the quick and painless death of a needle or an electric shock but a slow, painful death over a period of days, maybe weeks. She survived the same attempt to kill her once before by sheer willpower.

If it were up to me, I would get 10 -- maybe 20 -- young, strong men. With careful planning we could storm the hospice, bundle up Terri, take her home to her parents.

We wouldn't use guns like they did when they took Elian. We would use stealth, sneakiness and determination to win the day (or night). If Terri's parents then need to whisk her away to some country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US, then so be it.

It's what I owe another human being just because I'm human. But it's not up to me.

So I will continue to do everything else. The last-ditch petition to the President will be delivered to the White House on March 17. If you haven't signed it, please do so now at http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/PresPardon.

If Terri dies, rights of the disabled to be given every chance to heal and live die with her. If it were up to me, I'd take action.

Disclaimer for my attorney friends: This post is not to be interpreted as a violation of US Code Title 18:Section 373.

New Women's Org Offers Conservative Counterpoint to NOW

By Mary Rettig
March 10, 2005

The founder and president of a new women's group says she wants the organization to be a place where busy women can affect their world -- and to be known as the antithesis of the National Organization for Women.

Kimberly Fletcher founded the group Homemakers for America (HFA)http://www.homemakersforamerica.com/ in November 2004 to act as a conduit of information to busy women for other pro-family groups like Concerned Women for America and the Eagle Forum. The group describes itself as a "corporation of liberal ideas and conservative values" -- liberal ideas being such things as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom to pursue happiness

The idea for the organization, she says, came as she was involved in last year's election. It was during that time she encountered many women who told her they did not have the information they needed to make a proper voting decision. She recalls one woman in particular who said she was not going to vote because the election was too important and she did not want to make the wrong choice.

"I just thought, 'Oh, my goodness,'" Fletcher remembers. "And I realized that the problem is that so many women are so busy with their families and their children, and we see all the things that are going on in the country, and we don't like what we see, and we want to make a difference -- but we're just trying to make dinner."

The concept of women making dinner is one of those gender roles that another women's group, the National Organization for Women (NOW), has been accused of trying to erase during its existence. Fletcher says for the past four decades, NOW has portrayed itself as the singular voice for women and a group that wants to create equal opportunities for women. But she encourages women to start asking themselves if NOW really speaks for them.

"When you read [NOW's] agenda, you realize that's not what they're about," she says. "They want to offer marriage to everyone, whether or not they're husband and wife, man and woman." And NOW also wants to encourage sexual promiscuity among the younger set, she says.

"They are promoting the distribution of birth-control in high school," she explains, "and they even promote abortion among young girls without having to tell their parents."

Fletcher says the HFA motto of "God, Freedom, and Family" flies in the face of what NOW believes. She says she is convinced NOW has had a stranglehold on American women, and a new women's opinion needs to be heard. Homemakers for America is currently in the midst of a "membership hyperdrive" in which they hope to gain a million members by the end of May.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for
American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
*************************************************************
My note on this -- what young women don't realize (and someone should be at least telling them -- is that there is plenty of time to have a career or two after you raise a family. And you do the best job of family raising while you are young enough and agile enough to keep up with children. Strong families are built by mothers who make happy memories for their children. Ms. Fletcher (like Phyllis Shafly in the 1970s) is on the right track.

Do You Know What Death Really Is?

It is only when you have challenged Death and stared him down -- and lost -- that you truly know the difference between life on life support and That Dark Night.

First, Terri Schiave is NOT on life support in the sense that I'm talking about. All she needs, like you and like me, is food and liquids to survive.

But even if she were hooked up to machines -- and for all of you who have loved ones who are -- I offer this, first-hand experience:

It had come to this: his lively, treasured 16-year-old body limp, pale and (seemingly) lifeless. Plastic tubes traveled from his sheet-shrouded form to a variety of machines, ticking, buzzing, lines bouncing and traveling across screens.

Our hope slid away. traveling downhill like some empty vessel wildly out of control.

"There's no more we can do," the doctors said. "He lives only because the machines make him function. His kidneys, his liver, even his brain are all gone -- nonfunctioning. We have two choices: keep him here, in this condition for who knows how long. Or turn off the machines and let God make the choice."

No loving parent should ever have to face those words...in that kind of place...at any time.

He had been the spark of surprise in our family. We never knew what he would do next but whatever it would be, it would be funny, sweet, loving and caring. He was his sister and brother's pet -- and the closest buddy to his younger, severely retarded brother.

As we moved around the country, following his Dad's career from training astronauts to helping companies use developments from space technology to improve the environment, he would be the one to meet our new neighbors and introduce us to the new community. It was not unusual to be greeted on my first trip to a new grocery store in a new (to us) community with "Oh, you must be Ted's mother. He is such a joy."

And then the aneurysm hit. A malformation of blood vessels in the cerebellum of his brain struck him down at age 11. Doctors at Johns Hopkins operated and ("it was a miracle," they said) saved his life. We all enjoyed his 99 percent recovery. With lots of patience and therapy (but he was back in school -- at his insistence -- in three months), he was left with only a slight ataxia that he fought by practicing the piano daily.

Then, the day before his first day of high school, it hit again. This time he awoke from surgery totally paralyzed, able only to blink his eyes once for "yes," twice for "no." For six weeks we stayed by his side, read to him, sang to him, played his favorite records -- did all we could to be there with him. He seemed to be getting better; his eyes followed us around the room, watched us when we stood outside his door in the hallway, talking.

And then the night when, sitting in a chair, resting my head on his mattress as he slept, his eyes opened and he looked at me. I moved closer. "Sleep now, honey," I said, "I'll see you in the morning." His eyes closed.

I woke sometime later aware that somethign was different. He was so still. I rang for the nurse. "Code Blue."

That's when they rushed him into ICU and brought out the wires machines. He lay there for days and then the doctors gave us our ultimatum.

To keep him bound with wires like that seemed inhuman. Yes, let God have the choice.

So they removed the wires and I got the shock of my life.

The difference between life on machines and Death is stunning. The moment I saw what that difference was I regretted that decision with all my heart and I regret it today.

You must not let Terry die. Death is final and irrevocable. Death is hopeless.

A few years later I read in a magazine -- in a doctor's waiting room, no less -- about new laser surgery that could have repaired his brain. New procedures and therapies, new hope through developing medical science. And the pain and the regret deepened into an agony that will not go away.

DON'T KILL TERRI SCHIAVO. Fight for her life with your every resource. Don't give up on Terri.

What A Grand Honor

s The Hadassah Medical Organization Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize?

Our Jewish friends must be very proud of this. The organization has been controversial at times (and what political organization trying to do some good in this world hasn't) but on the whole it has tried to make a difference.

(NEW YORK, NY -- March 8, 2005) -- The Hadassah Medical Organization, which has achieved international acclaim for promoting peace in the Middle East region by providing equal treatment to Palestinians and Israelis, has been nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

Although the Norwegian Nobel Committee does not release the names of nominees, professors and members of legislatures from at least four different countries recently revealed to Hadassah officials that they had extended formal nominations on behalf of the medical organization, according to June Walker, National President of
Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, the founder and benefactor of the medical organization.

Their nominations cited three areas in which Hadassah Medical Organization has excelled in promoting peace in the region: the ability to maintain the value of equal treatment for all people despite treating more terror victims than any other medical center; the model of cooperation and coexistence set by the mixed staff of
people of all faiths; and the medical organization's ongoing initiatives in creating bridges for peace even throughout the intifada.

"I can't think of a more meaningful way to celebrate our founding," said Walker, noting that the organization is celebrating its 93rd birthday this month. "The values of Hadassah continue to set the standard that all people need to strive for."

The winner of $1.6 million prize will be announced in the fall.

Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America, is the largest women's, largest Jewish and largest Zionist organization in the U.S., and supports the Hadassah Medical Organization in Israel. HMO is the most advanced medical and research center in the Middle East: Nearly one million patients from all over the world are treated each year at the two hospitals, a community health center, and more than 100 outpatient clinics. In the U.S., Hadassah programs also include health education and services, social action and advocacy, Jewish education, conservation, and forging partnerships with Israel. For more information on Hadassah, please visit
www.hadassah.org

More information on the founding and goals of the group from their website:

Founded in 1912, Hadassah retains the passion and timeless values of its founder, Henrietta Szold, Jewish scholar and activist, who was dedicated to Judaism, Zionism, and the American ideal.

Committed to the centrality of Israel based on the renaissance of the Jewish people in its historic homeland, Hadassah promotes the unity of the Jewish people. In Israel, Hadassah initiates and supports pace-setting health care, education and youth institutions, and land development to meet the country's changing needs.
In the United States, Hadassah enhances the quality of American and Jewish life through its education and Zionist youth programs, promotes health awareness, and provides personal enrichment and growth for its members.

Congratulations to the women of Hadassah. And good luck on your nomination.

So..I've Been Slapped Around A Bit. By Conservatives!

Well, I am going to let my Liberal friends have a huge chance to say "I told you so." And I will take it like a lady.

For years -- forever -- I've stood up and defended Conservatives when my Liberal buddies bashed them and said they were dumb, rude, etc. etc. I thought I was Right (couldn't resist the pun) because although I do now and have in the past belonged to quite a few email lists, mostly conservative, I had never seen the things my liberal friends accused us of. That is, until yesterday, as a new member to a Conservative list.

To be fair, I have to admit I brought it on myself. Someone posted an article about Muslims being able to broadcast daily prayers in a city somewhere in Great Flyover Land. Remembering how much I love hearing church bells in the small towns of our country, I thought that sounded a bit unusual -- but lovely. I didn't comment on the post at that time.

However, several posts immediately followed that, saying the poster hated Muslims and would like to kill them all. That's when I spoke up.

I said not all Muslims are terrorists; that the terrorists are an extremist faction (like skinheads or some equally fringe outfit) and that as Christians and as Americans we are called to resist hatred. I also said that if we hate Muslims, the terrorists win. And I said more along those lines.

Boy, did I bring the wrath of the Right down on my head.

So to my Liberal friends who have claimed to be cursed and worse by Conservatives, I apologize. We're not all like that, but obviously some of the worst Conservatives are at least as vicious, narrow-minded, stupid and blind as the worst of the Liberals.

I promise I won't ever take up for Conservatives as a generic breed again.