Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo was not to be removed from her hospice, a team of state agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted — but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge’s order, The Herald has learned.

For a brief period, local police, who have officers at the hospice to keep protesters out, prepared for what sources called “a showdown.”

“The FDLE called to say they were en route to the scene,” said an official with the city police who requested anonymity. “When the sheriff’s department and our department told them they could not enforce their order, they backed off.”

“It was kind of a showdown on the part of the locals and the state police,” the official said. “It it was not too long after that Jeb Bush was on TV saying that, evidently, he doesn’t have as much authority as people think.” via ProRev

Editorial cartoon via Lefti on the News who comments, “Iraqis have (or had) lives too.”

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My friend Joe Delaplaine has done a quite funny, witty sendup of Fox News, complete with idiot announcers, inept reporters in the field, and non-stop ticker “news.” Good stuff indeed.

View the movie. (Quicktime, 3 min, 45 MB )

Email Joe.

PS The Quicktime  file has to download completely first before streaming, anyone know how to tell Quicktime to start streaming as it’s downloading?

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One of the Vatican’s more definitive statements on the end of life is a 1951 document by Pope Pius XII, declaring that the Catholic Church holds that a person is obliged to always preserve life, but that obligation was not “absolute.” Pius wrote that a person should accept “ordinary means” to save his or her life, but not “extraordinary means.”

More to the point, bioethicists will also tell you that this case is about the right to refuse medical treatment — chemotherapy, blood transfusions, or, yes, food and water. Can we make that decision, and if not, who can? Decades of hard cases have established our right to say no, and state legislation has determined that our spouses, adult children, parents — in that order — can act for us. In Florida, the courts determined that Michael Schiavo knew what his wife wanted and spoke for her.

Megadox Advance Health Care Directives. Download the form for $10, fill it out. Then there’s no confusion at all what your wishes are and no court in the world can block it.

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Police arrest teenager for selling marijuana-laced brownies

80-year-old man arrested for selling crack and meth

Colombian police find drugs sub. A nearly complete eight-metre fibreglass submarine, capable of carrying 10 tonnes cocaine, worth $200m, was found in the Pacific port of Tumaco. Via Adam Curry’s Weblog

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Bush hits a new low in polls for job approval

President Bush’s job-approval rating has sunk to 45 percent, the worst of his presidency, amid public opposition at his intervention in the Terri Schiavo case and growing concern over gasoline prices.

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Sue is planting giant pumpkins again this year (yes, it’s planting time here in L.A.) Last year, she grew a 300 pounder, not bad for a first year attempt experts say, and saved seeds for this year.

How fast do giant pumpkins grow? She put a seed in a 12 ounce paper cup to germinate. A few days later, the seed was cracking with a little green appearing but no leaves as yet. I transplanted it into a larger pot and noticed it was already root-bound. This for a seed just turning green with no leaves.

Today, just 2-3 days later, the leaves are three inches long.

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