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Pulling the Plug: Rep. Tom DeLay and Terri Schiavo's Dad
Supported Their Own Parent's Right to Die
U.S. Soldiers Accused Of Raping Iraqi Women Escape Prosecution
"Social Security: Is It Really A Crisis?" A Debate
w/ Paul Krugman, Michael Tanner, Josh Michah Marshall
Pulling the Plug: Rep. Tom DeLay and Terri Schiavo's
Dad Supported Their Own Parent's Right to Die
While the media has covered the Terri Schiavo case extensively
over the past two weeks little coverage has been given to
the history of two of the key players: Schiavo's father and
Rep. Tom DeLay. Both men faced a similar dilemma years ago
and both supported their parents right to die. We talk to
reporters who broke these stories. [includes rush
transcript]
According to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll released last week,
President Bush's approval rating has fallen to 45% percent,
the lowest point of his presidency. The poll found the largest
drop for Bush came among men, self-described conservatives
and churchgoers. Independent political analysts said the drop
may reflect opposition to the White House and Congress intervening
in the Terri Schiavo matter. A CBS poll released over the
weekend showed that 82% percent of Americans thought Congress
should have stayed out of the Schiavo case and 75% percent
said government should keep out of end-of-life issues. One
of the most outspoken voices in the Congress over the past
2 weeks on this issue is House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
- Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX), speaking on March 18
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who has been one of the
most outspoken opponents of removing Terri Schiavo's feeding
tube. But 17 years ago, DeLay and his family had to make a
simliar decision over his own comatose father and they elected
not to keep him alive by artificial means. We are joined on
the phone by Walter Roche- one of two L.A Times reporters
who broke this story. And from the studio in Washington DC,
we are joined by two guests - Judd Legum - director of research
at the Center for American Progress and Suzanne Goldenberg,
the US correspondent for the British Guardian newspaper. Judd
has also been conducting research into Tom Delay's involvement
in the Schiavo case. And in her own reporting on the Schiavo
case, Suzanne Goldenberg found that Terri's father decided
to turn off the life support system for his own 79 year old
mother who was ill with pneumonia for a week.
U.S. Soldiers Accused Of Raping Iraqi Women Escape
Prosecution
On International Women's Day, Guardian reporter Suzanne
Goldenberg broke the story about how soldiers from the 3rd
Infantry Brigade accused of rape were able to escape the charges.
The soldiers were from the same military unit whose troops
fired on the car carrying freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena.
Suzanne Goldenberg's article appeared in the Guardian newspaper.
It began: "Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Brigade --
the same military unit whose troops fired on the car carrying
freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena -- were under investigation
last year for raping Iraqi women, U.S. Army documents reveal.
Four soldiers were alleged to have raped two women while on
guard duty in a Baghdad shopping precinct. A U.S. Army investigator
interviewed several soldiers from the military unit, the 1-15th
battalion of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, but did not locate
or interview the Iraqi women involved before shutting down
the inquiry for lack of evidence.
"Transcripts of the investigation, obtained by the Guardian
from the American Civil Liberties Union, show only the most
cursory attempts by the investigator to establish whether
the women were raped. The soldiers claimed the women were
prostitutes, or denied any knowledge of anyone in their unit
having sex while deployed in Iraq. The statements went largely
unchallenged. "I know the women were Iraqi. I however
don't know if they were raped, or were prostitutes, or just
wanted sex," one soldier told investigators.
"Jameel Jaffar, an attorney for the ACLU, which has
led a long legal struggle to get the Pentagon to release documents
of its investigations, argues that the failure to conduct
a thorough investigation on such serious charges as rape was
part of a disturbing pattern. 'There are always questions
in these files about whether the investigator was sufficiently
aggressive in pursuing leads and tracking down evidence,'
he said."
We are joined by Suzanne Goldenberg in our D.C. studio.
- Suzanne Goldenberg, U.S. correspondent for the British
Guardian newspaper.
"Social Security: Is It Really A Crisis?"
A Debate w/ Paul Krugman, Michael Tanner, Josh Michah Marshall
We play excerpts from a recent debate on social security
between New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul
Krugman, Michael Tanner of the CATO Institute and Josh Micah
Marshall of TalkingPointsMemo.com.
President Bush's approval rating has reached an all-time
low in his presidency. And he has made 2 major miscalculations
in the last month. One is his involvement with the Schiavo
case where it turns out the overwhelming majority of people
are opposed to congressional intervention which Bush approved,
flying back in the middle of the night from vacation in Crawford
to sign off on Congress' legislation. Add to that social security
and his ill-fated 60-city tour, his ratings are at an all-time
low. The Schiavo case was clearly a serious miscalculation
for Bush, and the majority of Americans do not buy his social
security privatization plan. A Washington Post/ABC News poll
found that 55% percent of Americans oppose his plan. Recently
in New York, a debate was held at the New York Society for
Ethical Culture. It was called "Social Security: Is it
Really a Crises?" It featured New York Times columnist
Paul Krugman, author of "The Great Unravelling: Losing
Our Way in the New Century," as well as Josh Micah Marshall
who runs the website TalkingPointsMemo.com. We begin with
Michael Tanner from the CATO Institute. Under his direction,
CATO launched the Project on Social Security Choice, advocating
privatizing social security.
- Michael Tanner, directs research on new, market-based
approaches to health, welfare, and other entitlements at
the CATO Institute. Under
Tanner's direction, CATO launched the Project
on Social Security Choice, widely considered the leading
impetus for transforming the current system into a private
savings program.
- Paul Krugman, professor of economics and international
affairs at Princeton University. He is a columnist for the
New York Times and author of 20 books, including "The
Great Unravelling: Losing Our Way in the New Century."
- Josh Michah Marshall, he is a contributing writer for
the Washington Monthly, a columnist for The Hill, and runs
a website, TalkingPointsMemo.com.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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