# WTF Do You Mean By This DeLay? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 1, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173 "2005-04-01T03:20:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoundrel_Swanswater)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/21 "2005-04-01T10:08:51Z")
I am really fearful for the state of the USA today. If Congress and the President put themselves above the judiciary system, won’t that mean that the USA will become a totalitarian state? Will the President get unlimited powers to do whatever he wants, without being restricted by Congress or judges? My gods, if this is the case, you people need to revolt. This is about the opposite of what the constitution was written for. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mycroft\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_H)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/22 "2005-04-01T14:28:28Z")
You’ve hit it on the head **Scoundrel**. This is what it really sounds like Delay, GW Bush and other neo-con Republicans wish for. If it was up to them, I _truly_ believe they would like to scrap the Constitution and form a one-branch government with the president and congress working together on their own agenda without any of the established checks and balances. (The problem would be to make sure no other party could ever get into the power position.) I have had distaste for the Administration for almost five years now, but events in the past year have actually made me fear for the future of the USA and our relationship with the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/23 "2005-04-01T14:31:38Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Justice Delayed is … …still loads of fun when DeLay’s sorry ass is standing before one of those judges in an ethics trial. > [@Scoundrel Swanswater](#): > > If Congress and the President put themselves above the judiciary system, won’t that mean that the USA will become a totalitarian state? Chill. They try that all the time, usually to draw attention away from their own embarassments. In a year or two Tom DeLay will be a footnote. ---
**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/24 "2005-04-01T14:33:28Z")
**Scoundrel** I agree with you that the state of the United States today isn’t what many Americans wish it would be or what the founding fathers wanted it to be. I think the leaders of our country need to stop trying to “beat” the opposing party like this is some game-like struggle back & forth for power instead of realizing that they are supposed to be representing their constituents best interests and only concerning themselves with serving their communities, instead of lining their pockets or jockeying for position in their party. Revolt is a very strong word, and lets all hope it never come to that. However if the current trend towards totalitarianism continues, I could see a revolt/revolution becoming an appealling option. This is all of course just MHO, and while I don’t advocate violence or any attempts to change the government, if the government is intent on changing itself into something other than a democracy, it would have to eventually be challenged. ---
**Author:** ![Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoundrel_Swanswater)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/25 "2005-04-01T14:50:15Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Chill. They try that all the time, usually to draw attention away from their own embarassments. In a year or two Tom DeLay will be a footnote. I am not so sure about that. I thought the same when I heard about the Patriot Act and Guantanamo Bay. That would never fly in a civilised society, right? How wrong was I. I really feel that not enough is being done to prevent this. What possibility does the American people have to get rid of their president? I have seen the movie _Freedom Bound_, and thought it was very overwrought and propaganda-like, but I am starting to see more and more similarities between Mr. Bush and Mr. Hitler. 9/11 is turning into America’s Reichstag Fire. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Cooper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@Agent\_Cooper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Cooper)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/26 "2005-04-01T14:52:32Z")
/puke more of the same. maybe he was referring to the coming civil suit against the husband for her death. pure speculation of course, but it will not surprise me for an instant. ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/27 "2005-04-01T14:54:32Z")
I think the media deserves a lot of the blame for allowing things to get to the point where legislators can say shit like with a straight face. In the Schiavo case, they nearly always oversimplify the role of the judge–the headline or 15-second talking-head blurb isn’t “Judge to Decide Whether Parents Or Husband Should Make Medical Decisions For Incapacitated Persons Under Flordia Law” it’s “Judge to Decide if Schiavo Lives.” It seems that the media frequently ignores or downplays the legal constraints that judges operate under and instead portrays them as autocratic decision makers. So instead of saying “The legislature didn’t anticipate cases like this when we wrote those laws” or “The legislature wrote ambiguous laws that the courts have to sort out” they get to say “Judge Greer killed Terri!!!”. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/28 "2005-04-01T15:01:20Z")
> [@Scoundrel Swanswater](#): > > I am really fearful for the state of the USA today. > If Congress and the President put themselves above the judiciary system, won’t that mean that the USA will become a totalitarian state? > Will the President get unlimited powers to do whatever he wants, without being restricted by Congress or judges? > My gods, if this is the case, you people need to revolt. > This is about the opposite of what the constitution was written for. And an omnipotent Judiciary, uncontrolled by Legislature or Executive, is any more desirable? I think DeLay means that those men will answer, if not to the people, then to God. I agree with him. A woman was starved for fourteen days by Judicial order when she had possibly delusional, but still loving family ready, willing & able to take care of her. Fuck that. And such right-wingers as Dershowitz, Nader & Jackson, as well as 47 House Democrats see the point. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/29 "2005-04-01T15:08:46Z")
**FriarTed** , you know I like you but the notion that Terry Schiavo was delusional any time during the past 15 years is, well, delusional. Her cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that generates delusions was destroyed years ago and EEGs taken of her brain showed a flat line. What’s undesirable and rather frightening is foolish, grieving people used the government to keep a body alive for years after the soul had departed it and the U.S. Congress tried to intervene to override Ms. Schiavo’s expressed wishes and prolong this farce. I’m going to do all I can to get Santorum out of the Senate; I assume a bunch of folks down in Texas feel the same about Mr. DeLay. Let’s get rid of them! CJ ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/30 "2005-04-01T15:15:20Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > A woman was starved for fourteen days by Judicial order when she had possibly delusional, but still loving family ready, willing & able to take care of her. Fuck that. But was the fact that she had a family “ready, willing & able” to take care of her even something that the judge could consider under the law? If not, then wouldn’t that be the fault of the people who wrote the laws? ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/31 "2005-04-01T15:16:24Z")
> [@Siege](#): > > **FriarTed** , you know I like you but the notion that Terry Schiavo was delusional any time during the past 15 years is, well, delusional. He was calling Terri’s parents delusional, not Terri. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/32 "2005-04-01T15:21:37Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I think DeLay means that those men will answer, if not to the people, then to God. I agree with him. A woman was starved for fourteen days by Judicial order when she had possibly delusional, but still loving family ready, willing & able to take care of her. Fuck that. Does it matter to you at all that _that’s what she wanted to happen?_ You want her own wish not to have her consciousnessless body kept pumping to have been overruled - is that compassionate? Is that loving? Is it even “taking care of her”? Fuck _that_, Padre. Those who prevented her wishes from being carried out for so long have their own answering to do to the Man Upstairs. Those who supported those efforts will as well. Will you be ready? ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/33 "2005-04-01T15:25:29Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > And an omnipotent Judiciary, uncontrolled by Legislature or Executive, is any more desirable? Right, because this is the only alternative to a completely subservient rubber-stamp court system. Is it really your opinion that the judiciary should do what it’s told, rather than interpret the law? This, after all, is what DeLay appears to want when he says: “We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president.” The bill passed enabled the Schindlers to file an appeal. No more, no less. George Bush said that in his opinion there should be a presumption of life. Is this now to be legally binding? Should the courts hang on the President’s every verbal issuance, seeking nuggets of gospel truth? It is not a judicial excess to disagree with the President, believe it or not. The courts implemented the law of the land. You have a problem with it, then change the law (but please don’t). Don’t complain about judges exceeding their powers - it was outside their power to act as you demand. > [@](#): > > I think DeLay means that those men will answer, if not to the people, then to God. I agree with him. A woman was starved for fourteen days by Judicial order when she had possibly delusional, but still loving family ready, willing & able to take care of her. Fuck that. Despite it being her established wish that she not be kept alive indefinitely? Just where do a person’s wishes enter into this twisted morality? ---
**Author:** ![Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoundrel_Swanswater)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/34 "2005-04-01T15:29:18Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > And an omnipotent Judiciary, uncontrolled by Legislature or Executive, is any more desirable? Abso-fricking-lutely. The thing is distributed power. No one person should have all the power. That is why in most democratic systems you have the 3-tier system. This has been developed over centuries. It looks as if the USA government wants to turn back time to the times of the Czars and Emperors. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/35 "2005-04-01T15:29:41Z")
> [@Dead Badger](#): > > This, after all, is what DeLay appears to want when he says: > > “We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president.” One can only hope that if Bush, DeLay, & Co. continue on the road they have chosen, they will wind up with an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable _citizenry_ that thumbs their nose at Congress and the president. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/36 "2005-04-01T15:32:10Z")
Where did the notion come from that interfering with someone’s entering the Kingdom of Heaven when God summons them is a \*good \* thing? ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/37 "2005-04-01T15:39:13Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Where did the notion come from that interfering with someone’s entering the Kingdom of Heaven when God summons them is a \*good \* thing? Yeah. God might need his Keanu to run the Golden PSP. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/38 "2005-04-01T15:41:54Z")
> [@Scoundrel Swanswater](#): > > I am really fearful for the state of the USA today. > If Congress and the President put themselves above the judiciary system, won’t that mean that the USA will become a totalitarian state? > Will the President get unlimited powers to do whatever he wants, without being restricted by Congress or judges? > My gods, if this is the case, you people need to revolt. > This is about the opposite of what the constitution was written for. I’m relieved tha someone else has the same misgivings I do. If you’re the only one, you start to wonder about things. Maybe my comments about enemies of the state and treasonous activity weren’t that far off after all. These “people” take oaths to uphold and defend the constitution, not tear it down. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/39 "2005-04-01T15:50:49Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > And an omnipotent Judiciary, uncontrolled by Legislature or Executive, is any more desirable? > > I think DeLay means that those men will answer, if not to the people, then to God. I agree with him. A woman was starved for fourteen days by Judicial order when she had possibly delusional, but still loving family ready, willing & able to take care of her. Fuck that. > And such right-wingers as Dershowitz, Nader & Jackson, as well as 47 House Democrats see the point. The Court is not supposed to be answerable or controlled! That is the whole point! If it is just a pawn of the the far right MINORITY, then why have a Court at all??? And Terry was not “possibly delusional”, her brain was gone. Partially destroyed. Brain dead. Stop swallowing every lie the far right puts out and open your eyes. If the far right keeps going, there will be a backlash, and it may not come from who you think. There are a lot of us people out there who took an oath too. It was very similar to the ones all those “fine upstanding” politicians took, to defend and uphold the constitution. Our oath was to defend against all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC. The moment DeLay, Bush, or anyone else tries to eliminate the constitution, they DO become The Enemy. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173/40 "2005-04-01T16:00:32Z")
I did mean the parents were probably delusional about the extent of Terri’s awareness or chances for recovery. I also think those medical experts who assured us of her starvation being pain-free were less than convincing (and I notice that she was being given morphine occasionally through the past two weeks- odd medication for someone who couldn’t feel pain). If Terri was being taken off life supports the absence of which assured her a quick & painless exit, I wouldn’t be uptight about this. Throughout the ordeal, I’ve been of two minds- but fact is, she was starved for fourteen frickin’ days. I can’t get over that. On to the other issue- I really look forward to the many screams of outrage will be coming from the Judiciacrat Supporters here when the Judiciary becomes Activist Right. Oh, the whines for a President and Congress who will rescue us from those black-robes theocrats! _G_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-do-you-mean-by-this-delay/297173.md?page=3)