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There's a proverb that there are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.
Self-deceit.
That would seem to be applicable to Michael Schiavo fans as well as Schiavo himself. What kind of person openly and eagerly supports and applauds a man who killed his wife in the most public execution ever conducted in America, an icon of judicially sanctioned death, a man whose legacy is being the cause for the first person ever put to death by court order in our United States because she was being disabled and unable to speak for herself?
Michael Schiavo should have no role in choosing individuals charged with the public trust and certainly shouldn't himself be in an office of public trust. He is not a person that should have any role in deciding who makes our policies and represents our interests. Putting Michael Schiavo in any role ultimately affecting public policy is pure hypocrisy and shows utter disdain for human rights and life.
Throughout the life and death battle played out in Florida in the Pinellas County court of Judge George Greer, the mainstream media and others focused on the so-called right wing Christians and the right to lifers. They totally ignored, as did Michael Schiavo, perhaps the most important party in the drama---the disability groups and organizations and are still doing so.
Michael Schiavo is taking his new found fame down the yellow brick road of politics. This is the man who falsified his academic credentials, who can't tell the same story twice, who has what some might call a convenient memory, who is exploiting the name and memory of his disabled wife to further himself and his own agenda.
He should have quit while he was presumably ahead and gone back from whence he came---obscurity, a mama's boy, the youngest of five overshadowed by his bigger brothers, who admittedly didn't play sports, who's closest claim to athletic accomplishment is standing on a picnic with his brothers in a contest to see who could pee the farthest.
Crude, rude and crass.
So Michael Schiavo was then, so he is today. So he will always be.
That's what Michael Schiavo has always been about---himself-a legend in his own mind. It's always been what Michael Schiavo wants, no one else. And he's been exploiting Terri Schiavo for the past 16 years, first in life---now in death.
It's always been about money---first the money from the medical malpractice claims that he filed, then money from TerriPAC and now the $110,000 mortgage he just negotiated with SunTrust Bank.
It's never been about Terri's wish, it's been about Michael's wish.
Trouble is, until the New York Times helped him out, TerriPAC was near broke. Although he's making over $68,000 a year from his taxpayer-funded position at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, according to records at the Pinellas County Office of the Clerk of the Court, Michael and Jodi Centonze Schiavo have just borrowed $110,000 on a 30-year mortgage on their property at Marrie Court in Clearwater.
The records indicate that the house was previously unencumbered and in the name of Jodi Centonze only.
July 2006 Mortgage Document (PDF file)
Of course, don't forget, Michael Schiavo has already admitted in his book to defrauding the court and the state, admitting that although he used part of his $300,000 money awarded for loss of consortium from the 1992 malpractice trial to build a house in 1995 with his then concubine, he wasn't listed as an owner. The court had decreed that he couldn't own any property as Terri's guardian and then of course there was the matter of Medicaid and martial assets. By willfully hiding his now acknowledged ownership and assets, the taxpayers had to pay Terri's medical costs through Medicaid rather than her husband which allowed him to live with his girlfriend and father two children while taxpayers paid Terri's costs.
The clerk's records also show that now Michael and Jodi have added Michael's name as a property owner. Question is, where's he spending the $110,000? Pinellas County and the federal government should be attaching that $110,000 for reimbursement of Terri's medical care.
July 2006 Quitclaim Deed (PDF file)
It's time Michael Schiavo was removed from the Pinellas County payroll. Taxpayers shouldn't have to be paying him to pursue his vendetta, paying him to engage in partisan politics, paying him to posture himself for his run at political office for which he keeps hinting.
Can you imagine Michael Schiavo in public office? He stumbles and mumbles and admittedly doesn't even watch the news. Just what we need, an uninformed narcissistic neophyte wannabe.
The Times rightfully portrays Schiavo as a bitter man with an explosive temper, bitter because he had to use all of the money he envisioned would be his to instead pay lawyers to effect Terri's death cause she didn't die fast enough to suit him. That's cause she wasn't terminal. She was disabled.
Did that explosive temper of his have any role in Terri's collapse on Feb. 25, 1990?
He has an "appetite for combat", the Times says. And he's clearly laying the groundwork for his own run at political office, saying that he's "content with his low key role for now".
Low key? Is that what he calls is recent grandstanding, charging Congresswoman Musgrave's office, releasing radio spots for Florida gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, heading to Connecticut to oppose Joe Lieberman with all kinds of advance fanfare? Does this man ever tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Does he ever actually work for that $68,000 of taxpayer money? Is he on paid leave while he's off campaigning?
Think about what would happen to our social services programs, our programs for the aged and disabled, to health care programs if Michael Schiavo was ever elected to public office.
Fool the public once, Michael Schiavo, shame on you. Fool them twice, shame on them but the public isn't stupid enough to be fooled twice. The poor Michael scenario won't fly anymore.
This individual has single-handedly done more to harm the disabled and elderly community in today's culture than any other person. Now he thinks the world cares that he wants to perpetuate his vendetta against those who tried to save the life of Terri Schindler Schiavo, the wife he wrote off and abandoned after he found a new girlfriend and got a few bucks in his pocket from a malpractice suit. Instead of being allowed to profit from that litigation, he should have been sued for insurance fraud.
We think a review of transcripts involving Michael Schiavo's testimony is particularly revealing of the mindset and motives of Michael Schiavo. At the January 2000 trial, he portrayed himself as being a devoted husband, saying that he visited Terri every day after her sudden collapse on Feb. 25, 1990.
11 Q After those first sixteen days, did
12 you -- how often did you see Terri at Humana
13 Northside?
14 A I came every day.
Terri was moved to the College Harbor, a skilled nursing home in St. Petersburg, on May 12, 1990.
20 Q How long did you see Terri at College
21 Harbor?
22 A I saw Terri every day.
23 Q How much time did you spend?
24 A I went in the morning. Left in the
25 evening. Spent 8, 10, 12 hours a day.
Then Terri was moved on June 30, 1990, to Bayfront Rehabilitation Center in St. Petersburg.
24 Q How often did you see Terri at Bayfront?
25 A I was there every day.
In the fall of 1990, Terri was taken to the hospital of University of California at San Francisco for the implant of electrodes in her brain.
18 Q How often did you see Terri in the
19 hospital in the rehab in California?
20 A At the hospital, I stayed in her room 24
21 hours a day. I slept in a cot next to her. At
22 the rehab center, I was there every day with her.
23 Morning, noon, and night.
Upon her return from California, on Jan. 29, 1991, Terri was admitted to Mediplex Rehabilitation Center in Bradenton.
23 Q How often did you see Terri at Mediplex
24 in Bradenton?
25 A Every day.
About a year and a half after her collapse, on July 19, 1991, she was moved to the Sabal Palms Nursing Home.
18 Q How often did you see Terri at Sabal
19 Palms?
20 A Every day at Sabal Palms.
21 Q How long was she there?
22 A Approximately two years, I want to say.
23 Q How long would you see her?
24 A Um, 8, 10 hours a day.
And then in July, 1993, Michael met up with Jodi, or at least that's the first that he claims that he made her acquaintance.
17 Q At some point in time, did you move
18 Terri from Sabal Palms Nursing Center?
19 A Yes. I did.
20 Q Where did Terri move to?
21 A Palm Garden, Largo.
22 Q Is that where she is currently staying?
23 A Yes. It is.
24 Q When did that occur?
25 A 1996, I believe.
Pg. 66
1 Q How often did you -- how often do you
2 see Terri at Palm Garden in Largo?
3 A Currently?
4 Q Yes.
5 A Once or twice a week.
6 Q What do you do? How long do you stay?
7 What do you do when you see Terri?
8 A An hour-and-a-half, two hours.
So, after Michael met Jodi, he no longer visited Terri everyday and his 8 to 12 hour daily visits dwindled to once or twice a week to 1 ½ to 2 hours.
Let's not forget that by October, 1994, he had asked Jodi to marry him although his wife was still alive and that by 1995, he had contacted George Felos and entered into a retainer agreement for help in killing his wife.
The New York Times this week produced an article on Schiavo and his political aspirations. We saw one blog which seemed to aptly sum up the whole thing with the headline, "You'd think he'd slink away, but…."
The lead comments were that Schiavo is back, last seen as the husband who wanted his wife dead. He's set up TerriPAC, "a federal political action committee aimed against politicians who tried to stop Terri Schiavo's death. TerriPAC gives money to liberal candidates and Schiavo contributes? his own time. Schiavo flew to Connecticut last month to help Ned Lamont defeat Joseph Lieberman in the Democratic primary. Schiavo reminded voters that Lieberman had supported an emergency bill asking a federal court to consider reinserting Schiavo's feeding tube days before she died in March 2005".
http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/archives/026008.html
The first poster on the blog commented that "Well, it is his right but it makes him look awful petty and vengeful, of course anyone who didn't notice that during his wife's murder probably never will".
Touché.
The New York Times aptly portrayed Michael Schiavo as a man with a vendetta, fueled by anger, hate and bitterness, a need for revenge and still focused on money, not the proceeds of the malpractice trial anymore but now pandering to the public to fund his campaign for revenge.
Another poster opined that at the least, politicians like Ned Lamont, Hemlock Society supporter Peggy Lamm, Angie Paccione and Florida's Jim Davis are manipulating Schiavo to get their agenda pushed before the public. Those politicians like Lamont, Paccione, and Davis are exploiting Terri Schindler Schiavo as much, if not more, than Michael Schiavo and what's worse, doing so for political gain.
Michael Schiavo did such a fine job in Connecticut that the Republicans are supporting Joe Lieberman instead of the Republican candidate and Lieberman is 12 points ahead of Schiavo's candidate in the latest poll.
"I'm a very private person. I'd be happy if no one outside my immediate circle of friends and coworkers knew my name", Schiavo said in his book which has become known as 'Terri: One Lie After The Other" or "Believe That One And I'll Tell You Another". If Schiavo is such a private person why is he tippytoeing around the country with Derek "Fig" Newton, pandering for money, doing TV interviews, radio spots. Seriously, who really cares who Michael Schiavo endorses? In another six months it'll be more like Michael who? Are you foolish enough to cast your precious vote on a candidate just because Michael Schiavo says to do so?
Schiavo and his privacy. He's got his own blog, if you want to believe that it's him doing the writing. "Yesterday's New York Times had a front page story on me and my political committee" Did you see it"? Huh, huh, huh, did ya? Here's the link, he babbles.
He oozes immaturity and lack of education and clearly shows he's still fueled by money and the need to be in the spotlight. "In a matter of hours, we received hundred of supportive emails, campaign invitations, more media requests and more than $10,000 in donations from across the country. Just like that. It was great".
All at the cost of an innocent disabled woman. So what's so great about that. Total insensitivity, self-centeredness.
Like a kid in a candy store, juvenile, no finesse.
Michael Schiavo is beyond revolting.
Family matter? Right to privacy? Let's stop the baloney, Schiavo. If you were so committed to your family, instead of stroking your ego with your "personal appearances" around the country, you'd be home with your family, spending time with your new wife and children.
The New York Times tries to perpetuate the fraud of Michael Schiavo, telling us that "in some ways he remains as private and unknowable as when his wife Terri was the focus of a fervent national debate last year about life and death".
Oh, the world knows him and to know him is not to love him.
Michael Schiavo is the one who took the issue from being a private matter into a public spectacle by petitioning the court and Judge George Greer for an order to kill his disabled wife. Michael Schiavo brought the government into the life and death matter, seeking judicial sanction to kill his wife after his efforts to do so by withholding medical treatment failed. Michael Schiavo decimated Terri's right to privacy as well as her right to life. And he enjoyed every minute of watching the agony and despair of the Schindler family, like a big bully, picking the legs off a frog or fly.
Michael Schiavo was exploited by George Felos and the other players in the right to die movement for their agenda, just like he's being manipulated and used now for the agenda of various politicians only now, as then, he's too dense to see it because of that narcissistic block that he has. He's only concerned about Michael, what's in it for Michael, continuing to exploit Terri for his own personal gain.
Why didn't he attend the court proceedings during the seven year march to Terri's death? Why didn't Felos allow him to be interviewed without him being present? Could it have been that Felos didn't want America to see just how crass and crude Michael Schiavo really is, how full of hate and revenge he was and is, how obsessed he was and is with getting even with anyone who opposes or challenges him? Was Felos afraid that Schiavo is such a loose cannon that he feared Schiavo might blurt out what really happened on Feb. 25, 1990?
Possessive, controlling, domineering, abusive. Are those traits part of the profile of a sociopath, a psychopath?"
The Capital District area of New York has just concluded one of its biggest murder cases ever, that of Christopher Porco, found guilty of murdering his father, an appellate court law clerk, with an ax and grossly disfiguring his mother who survived the attack.
Following the verdict and the lack of emotion shown in the courtroom by and thereafter by Porco, Edelgard Wulfert, chairwoman of the department of psychology at the University at Albany, said that Porco fit the profile of a psychopath.
"A psychopath has no conscience, does not have a fear of consequences and does not experience emotions to the same degree as a normal individual," Wulfert said.
There's an overlap between psychopathic and narcissistic tendencies," she added. "He believes that the rules do not apply to him and he has a need to show off in front of people".
She said that other signature traits of psychopaths are a complete absence of remorse, coupled with a chronic case of self-centeredness that places their own interests and the pursuit of their desires above all others in a way that disregards the rights or feelings of others.
Anyone come to mind?
Where's the grieving husband, so devastated that his wife has died in such a horrific, public spectacle that he created?
There are no established, effective treatments for anti-social personality disorder. Psychologists have said that it's a firmly ingrained, pervasive pattern of behavior and thinking and that it's very difficult to modify that behavior.
Michael Schiavo's behavior is very public, even described by the New York Times, depicting his anger and need to get even with anyone and everyone who dared to tried to save the life of Terri Schindler Schiavo. He's on a one-issue crusade for revenge.
Political campaigns, like judicial homicides, should never be predicated on vendettas and revenge.
Michael Schiavo's 15 minutes in the spotlight have expired. It's time for him to slither away. 8-19-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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