Please visit the new home of Majikthise at bigthink.com/blogs/focal-point.

« Schiavo Reprise I | Main | Schiavo update »

March 20, 2005

Schiavo blogswarm

Enough is enough. The New York Times reports that the House [is] to Begin Debate on Schiavo Bill This Evening. Update: Oliver Willis is live-blogging the hearing.

The Democracy Cell Project is calling for a Schiavo blogswarm. [Media emails updated]

They're absolutely right:

It’s time for a blogswarm. No one in Congress is answering their phones.

We must contact the media to put pressure on Congress to butt out of the Schiavo case. There is a real threat to the separation of powers going on, not to mention Congress making medical decisions and person decisions and the disgusting aspects of playing politics with real peoples’ lives.

The Plan: Here is a media list of the majors and the news organizations that are working this weekend:

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Email all of them please. Tell them from your heart what you think of what’s happening and tell them they need to represent the “other” side of this story, that Tom Delay is slandering Michael Schiavo, that Congress is butting into people’s personal lives, that you are disgusted by what they are doing. Tell them what you think.

Just copy and paste the email addresses into the address line of your email. [Update: Email list current as of Monday evening, again, courtesy of Democracy Cells.]

If you're still making up your mind, or if you need inspiration for your emails, here's a reading list. I encourage readers to post their letters to the editors in the comments thread.

If you've written something that you'd like contribute to the list, please put the URL in the comments, or email it to me with "swarm" in the title and I'll add it to the list.*

David Velleman of Left2Right
The Editors of the American Journal of Bioethics (Scroll)
Rivka of Respectful of Otters
Ampersand of Alas, a Blog
PZ Myers of Pharyngula
Crooks and Liars
Atrios at Eschaton
Mostly Muppet
Mark Kleiman
Digby
Swopa of Needlenose
Matt Yglesias
Mahablog
Bull Moose
Dark Syde of Unscrewing the Inscrutable
The crew at Two Percent Solution
Ezra Klein
John Rennie of SciAm Perspectives.
Auguste from MalkinWatch
Neuroscientist Cerebrocrat's CAT scan comment at Alas, a Blog
Arthur of The Light of Reason
djw from Lawyers, Guns and Money
Milo Johnson of Jones Alley
All Spin Zone on the "The Corpse Reanimation and Tent Revival Faith Healing Act of 2005"
Talk Left with a link to the text of the Senate Bill (S.653)
WKirkland of The Ruth Group
KMB of Just Another Blog
Philosopher Hilzoy of Obsidian Wings
Balgar
A Constitutional analysis from Scott Lemieux of Lawyers, Guns and Money
Kriston of Begging to Differ
Karen of Bread Crumbs on Constitutional critical care
Charles Alt of Philosophy of Biology
John McKay of archy
Thomas Nephew of Newsrack
Steve Brady of Whatever
Rivka's on a roll: The Ethics Post
Kip Manley of Long Story, Short Pier
Jill Cozzi of Brilliant at Breakfast
Keven of Catch.com
Ed of Unfutz
Dave
Nice sample letter from John of Goose the Blog
Soapbox blog
Holocaust Kitsch Redux by Red State Son.
Philosopher Jessica Wilson on Trial by Legislation
Fool's News
Jesse at Pandagon
UMich law student Steve Sanders of Reason and Liberty
Not I, Said the Wolf
Ambivablog
Our Life
Threading the Needle
Two Shots and an Olive
A dramatic interpretation by Richard Nathan
Heraldblog
Samizdata
Culture Kitchen
Liberal Common Sense on the federal judge who will hear the Schiavo case, and more
ISOU
Expert Opinion
Tattered Coat
Maladjusted
Brutal Blog I and II
Balloon Juice series, Exhibits A,
B, C, D, E
F, G, and H
Tweedledopey
Feministe's fine swarm-letter
100 Monkeys
Unnecessary Thrills
Philosopher of religion Scott Paeth
Linkmeister
Joseph Hughes
Shades of Grey on means and ends
Arthur Silber sheds the light of reason on Schiavo and the media
Cut to the Chase
Sarah of Past is Prologue
More from the infamous Rude Pundit
The Heretik
Doug's .02@ The
Future, Now

Coturnix
Philosoraptor
Dave Does the Blog
Courtney from the amusingly-named Midvale School For the Gifted Alumni Association (scroll)
Heinrich Gompf
World 'O Crap on judge hatin'
An a propos Daily Show from Crooks and Liars (Scroll for more)
A personal reminiscence courtesy of The Great Beast
BuffaloPundit
The Bioethics Dude Abides
Arran's Alley
Bloogwood photo essay
Fubar on the Schiavo passion play
Suburban Guerrilla on Herr Doctor Senator Vigilante Vivisection for Cardio-Christ
American Online
Katherine archives choice excerpts from the House debate for posterity at Obsidian Wings (K should blog more, don't you think?)
L'Esprit de L'Escalier et encore
Reminder from blog.bioethics to follow the money. (Hat tip to Lisa)
Whitney
Wolverine Tom
Lawrence representin' The Prosecution
Steve Gilliard on someone who's been there
15 minutes of fame through extrajudicial activism--Roxanne explains...
Whatever happens, TBoggdid warn us (via James Wolcott)
For that matter, so did Wolcott
Preemptive Karma

* Forgive me if I've overlooked anyone who was kind enough to send me material. I've received several hundred emails over the last few days and I worry that I might have impolitely forgotten someone. Feel free to resend and/or to post a reminder comment.
** Ad hoc rule: Due to the large volume of posts, please limit your submissions to one URL--be sure to link to your other Schiavo-related materials in the body of that post.
*** Again, if I've forgotten to add you to the swarm, please don't hesitate to remind me.

Comments

Watch out for that NY Times URL buried in the list!

Good point. That's fixed now.

That's fixed now, and I posted a new thread on the blogswarm. Thank you for your help majik, and thank you to your readers.

Lindsay, feel free to add The Culture Wars End Today to you list.

Watching CNN right now, I feel like I'm watching the death of democracy unfold before my eyes.

They've got their second 9/11.

Don't you think all this effort could be channelled towards something a little more worthwhile?

Considering how Bush is committing war crimes every day, and how Congress is waging war on the poor?

Isn't there something just a teeny, teeny bit more important than whether some sack of bones in Florida continues to have food pumped into its stomach?

Ok, I sent my email, and earlier today I posted on this subject:

http://balgar.blogspot.com/2005/03/non-post-on-terri-schiavo.html

Isn't there something just a teeny, teeny bit more important than whether some sack of bones in Florida continues to have food pumped into its stomach?

As a citizen of a state not named Florida, this really wasn't my business. But now Congress is involved, and they're trying to overturn our entire system of government.

The GOP is indeed trying to overturn our system of government, but not with this ridiculous Schiavo thing. That's just meaningless grandstanding, like the hearing on steroids.

I'd worry more about the Patriot Act, rigged elections, criminal wars, Bush's Supreme Court nominations, possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned etc. etc. etc.

I'm not saying the Schiavo case isn't anybody's business; you're right in the sense that if Congress is doing it, it's your business. But if you had to rank all the issues that are important right now, how high would this nonsense place? For me, it would be second to last, right above steroids in baseball.

This is exactly the kind of bullshit distraction that the GOP loves to have everybody caught up in, so they can go about raping the public.

I'd agree, if the Democrats had the slightest ability to set the agenda.

Dadahead, If were just another of their cheap distractions, I'd agree with you, but the way they are doing this one, they are undermining basic matters of constitutional law in the US. This is something we need to draw a line about.

Anyway, I'm in.

http://johnmckay.blogspot.com/2005/03/blogswarm-majikthise-is-calling-for.html

It passed.

R: 154-3
D: 46-52
T: 200-55 (78%)

Okay, apparently 15 minutes doesn't mean 15 minutes.

203-58.

Killing the extra blockquotes.

While I'm at it -- dadahead, this is the legislative branch making a practically unprecedented attempt to seize power from and invalidate the decisions made by the judicial branch. This is fucking important, and if you can't see the long-term consequences, you need to take off the blinders.

The Schiavo case is very important, but...IT IS NOT NEARLY AS IMPORTANT AS THE SUDAN.

How about a blog swarm about the Sudan. It is turning into another Rwanda, and the blood is on the hands of our generation if we do nothing.
180,000 to 300,000 dead in the last two years. The line has to be drawn.

The Texas Statute kill 'em if they can't pay statute is Health&Safety Code §166.046(e)

I commented on the Cabbage Patch Doll vs. the appalling texas "kill them if they can't pay" bill at : http://weblog.pell.portland.or.us/~orc/2005/03/20/000/index.html

I'm not nearly as eloquent as the people already referenced, but I suspect I'm just as appalled.

Oh, I've got a better idea. Let's all just jerk off with dadahead and brendan about our pet cause and argue over the proper ranking of current atrocities, and...whoops! Too late to act now!

Why are you jackasses wasting time posting here if you've got so much world-saving to do? Get the fuck busy already!

I hate to say it, but "your side" will lose.

It's quite simple, really: The arguments that would convince people, of your viewpoint, are relatively sophisticated - they involve ethical & biological/scientific thought. The arguments on their side are very simple - all they need is enough emotion & ignorance.

None of this stuff is going to make any difference. And why care about that? (Echoing PZ Myers, I think) She's bloody dead. Let her parents get her, let the state get her, even let Sauron get her. Why care?

Here is a link to my piece on the Terri Schiavo situation:
http://www.richard-nathan-scripts.com/vegitative.htm

The government is not butting into the case to force Michale Schiave to do anything. They are not butting into the case to force Terry Schiavo to live. They are getting involved to allow HER FAMILy the right to be involved and help determine the course of action to be taken with Terri. Her husband has a clear conflict of interest. Liberals are quite amazing creatures. No moral fabric whatsoever.

Lindsay, I just wanted to let you and your readers know about the latest updates to our Terri Schiavo case coverage at the Democracy Cell Project (the parent source of the call-to-action Schiavo blogswarm story that you were kind enough to feature over the weekend, and that has since been picked up on by a number of other progressive blogs as well -- thanks!)

Our frequent blogger Tutterfly, who wrote the original post that first inspired the Schiavo blogswarm story on our site, has just posted a follow-up essay on the case that is very well worth the read. Please drop by the Democracy Cell Project blog and tell us what you think of her remarks: http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/

Hey don't call me a jackass.

The comments to this entry are closed.