I've been, like many Americans, following the Schiav-o-rama now for the last few days. Regardless of your viewpoint, it's a passionate debate that involves contentious ethical and legal issues.
In other words, it's bound to generate more heat than light, and in fact is almost certainly being trumped up to divert attention from real issues.
Consider:
CNN is running Schiavo as its main story. This is apparently more important than the things on the sidebar - a school shooting that left 9 people dead (NINE TIMES THE DEATH!), North Korea getting more nuclear weapons, a study showing 10 million (TEN MILLION!) illegal immigrants in America, and Michael Jackson.
MSNBC also runs Schiavo higher than the Minnesota school shooting, terrorism, and interest rates.
FOX is running Schiavo and the school shooting as the two top stories.
The New York Times, that liberal rag, of course manages to sneak in a story about Social Security. But taking a quick look at the NewsMap, it's clear that in the last week Schiavo-rama has pushed the Social Security debacle off the stage.
Not only that, but as Matt Yglesias details, it's pushing serious Medicare debates out of the public discourse.
As noted on Kos and elsewhere, Schiavo-rama is largely a political scam. But not for the reasons we all think - even the right-wingers don't like it.
This is about burying the real lead - that the Republicans in Congress, and President Bush, remain steadfast opponents of the New Deal, and are removing funding while we're all distracted by removing feeding-tubes.
We're getting played.