Terri Schiavo's parents can rest easy.
Jesse Jackson has now shown up before the cameras telling everyone he is on their side. See this story and the nice picture of Jesse.
This is proof positive that the Schindler's campaign to have a feeding tube reinserted in their daughter has now attained a critical mass of cameras. The Jesse-o-meter is the proof. He just doesn't show up for something without the right level of media attention.
Jackson, who must surely be cringing at the thought of setting foot in Florida - he once called New York a derogatory term because of so many Jews living there - is well known to Canadians as the guy who showed up at Oka offering to help resolve the stand-off. He demonstrated the accuracy of his intel by telling reporters at a scrum that two deaths were too many. Incredulous reporters - who knew only one person had been killed - took delight in embarrassing Jesse pretty badly. He got very testy when they didn't just stand their and record his blather for posterity or at oeast the US wire services.
On a related matter, go over and check Paul Wells' blog. He starts by riffing on Ottawa Sun columnist Earl MacRae through a link to a couple of other articulate blogs. It is worth following especially since the root of the riff is in MacRae's looney column on Terri Schiavo.
Here's one of my favourite lines from the guys looking to have the tube reinserted. They claim that Terri's husband has moved on with his life by marrying again and fathering two children. Minor problem: Schiavo didn't divorce his wife, Terri. He did not re-marry, nor did he marry another woman while at the same time being married to Terri. Yes, he is co-habitating and has fathered two children, but there is a big difference between that and the illegal acts he is alleged to have committed. It just goes to show that even the most basic of facts are irrelevant to some people when they get fired up with a righteous cause.
The only thing I can say with any conviction on this case is that were Terri Schiavo capable of uttering a single cluster of coherent syllables it would likely be something designed to get rid of the carrion-birds feasting off her body long before she is dead.