No, Sir, Our Charts Show Clearly That Down Is Still Up

Cognative dissonance on the radical right isn't worth aggravating my vertigo anymore, and besides there's always TBogg and World O' Crap and The General and Ailes and all the others who will appear on the blogroll here once I get off my ass to handle it with talent. But I can manage the occasional Chinese fire drill still hold on to my chair. Here's Hugh Hewitt:

Several voices have been raised against the action of the president and the Congress, and bogus opinion polls circulated. Fine.  Anyone who wants to run for office on the basis of that position is welcome to do so.

Um kay. Hugh links the "bogus opinion polls" line to Captain's Quarters, where Captain Ed informs us:

...a look at the questionnaire shows that ABC News completely misrepresented Terri's medical condition, which undoubtedly impacted the responses given. Question 2, which asks the central question, claims that Terri is on life support:

"2. Schiavo suffered brain damage and has been on life support for 15 years...."

Terri has never been on life support. The only medical treatment Terri received for the past five years has been food and water through a feeding tube, which is nothing at all like artificial life support. Artificial life support consists of ventilation for people unable to breathe on their own. The question sets up a strawman argument that so completely contradicts reality that the entire poll must be considered invalid.

Goddamit, don't you kids make me come down there with my AMA Glossary:

Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment – life-sustaining treatment includes, but is not limited to, mechanical ventilation, renal dialysis, chemotherapy, and administration of artificial nutrition and hydration. The AMA Code of Medical Ethics, and the majority bioethics opinion accept that " a competent, adult patient, may, in advance, formulate and provide a valid consent to the withholding and withdrawing of life-support systems in the event that injury or illness renders that individual incompetent to make such a decision" (AMA Code of Medical Ethics, Opinion 2.20). A designated patient surrogate may also make the decision to withhold or withdraw such treatment. The Code recognizes no ethical difference between the withholding and the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.

Not to mention that Florida law, which was the law in question before better men took over, has defined assisted feeding as "life support" since 1999.

And Hugh? "Bogus" means "sham, artificial" not "something some unlettered typist quibbled with somewhere". And "polls" is plural, which means "more than one". But, hey, that sure doesn't contradict your political wisdom in the slightest. Why don't your guys start running out in the open on their actual, out-of-touch Bronze Age ideals next time?