SANDY BERGER pleads guilty:

WASHINGTON - Former national security adviser Sandy Berger will plead guilty to taking classified material from the National Archives, a misdemeanor, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Berger is expected to appear in federal court in Washington on Friday, said Justice spokesman Bryan Sierra.

The former Clinton administration official previously acknowledged he removed from the National Archives copies of documents about the government's anti-terror efforts and notes that he took on those documents. He said he was reviewing the materials to help determine which Clinton administration documents to provide to the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

He called the episode "an honest mistake," and denied criminal wrongdoing.

An honest mistake.

Heh.

That's the howler of the day.

POPE JOHN PAUL II HAS BEEN GIVEN LAST RITES. As if the news wasn't already bad enough today.

THE POPE'S CONDITION has worsened:

VATICAN CITY Mar 31, 2005 — Pope John Paul II's blood pressure fell and he developed a high fever, an Italian news agency said Thursday, a worrying report that came a day after the ailing 84-year-old pontiff was given a feeding tube.

However, a Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that he was unaware the pontiff's condition had worsened, and the pope's situation was "regular" a few hours ago.

The Apcom news agency, citing unidentified sources, said doctors had to intervene because of a "worrying lowering of (blood) pressure." The news agency also said the pope reportedly had a high fever.

C. EVERETT KOOP on "The Slide To Auschwitz"

I would like to address you today on another potentially destructive force against mankind which, because of the nature of human beings, may not be controllable until it has inexorably pursued its path of destruction and has come to weigh upon the conscience of so many people that, like a Vietnam war, it must grind to a halt. I am speaking of the growing disregard for life itself. I am speaking of what was called in a more moral, or perhaps a more religious generation, the sanctity of human life. Given the conflicting concerns of our generation - the specter of famine raised by those primarily concerned about population control, the specter of financial chaos for the whole world raised by economic pundits, the intrusion of violence as an accepted thing into our culture, and the declining morality in all the affairs of men - it is quite possible that when the inevitable swing of the pendulum takes place and life once again becomes precious, it might be too late to stop the slide that will ultimately herald the decline and demise of our civilization.

This is just an excerpt. Read the whole thing. It seems particularly appropriate on a day like this.

TERRI SCHIAVO: Michael Medved asks on his radio show: "What good was done today?"

I await any convincing answers.

SOCIAL SECURITY: This Associated Press article on the president's push for reform sounds more like an editorial against the proposal, rather than a news story about it.

THIRTEEN DAYS AFTER HER FEEDING TUBE WAS REMOVED, Terri Schiavo has died:

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose final years tethered to a feeding tube sparked a bitter feud over her fate that divided a family and a nation, died Thursday, her husband's attorney said.

Schiavo, 41, died quietly in a Pinellas Park hospice 13 days after her feeding tube was removed despite extraordinary intervention by Florida lawmakers, Congress and President Bush - efforts that were rebuffed at every turn by the courts.

Her death was confirmed to The Associated Press by Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, and announced to reporters outside her hospice by a family adviser.

A shy woman who avoided the spotlight, Schiavo spent her final months as the focus of a media frenzy and an epic legal battle between her husband and parents over whether she should live or die.

Protesters streamed into Pinellas Park to keep vigil outside her hospice, with many arrested as they tried to bring her food and water. The Vatican likened the removal of her feeding tube to capital punishment for an innocent woman.

Politicians repeatedly tried to intervene as her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, pleaded for their daughter's life, calling the removal of the feeding tube "judicial homicide."

"Something has to be done and has to be done quick," Bob Schindler said, a week after the tube was removed March 18, as the family's legal options dwindled. "I think the people who are anxious to see her die are getting their wish."

Almost no one had any idea that Terri would have lasted thirteen days after her tube was removed, but her extraordinary will to live should not have surprised anyone who has watched her for years.

It's not a comforting thing to know that I live in a country that had armed guards preventing a woman's parents from giving her the nutrition and hydration that would have allowed her to continue living. Actually, it is quite a sickening feeling indeed.

Her husband had a massive conflict of interest, and should have been removed as her guardian long ago. Her parents -- who were the only people who could be trusted to have her long-term interests at heart -- were ignored...prevented from keeping her alive.

We should have "erred on the side of life," as I have heard so many times in recent days.

Instead, we have erred on the side of death, and as a result this is not one of the better days in the history of this country.

------------------------------------------

Eternal rest, indeed.

SO, IT'S A BAD THING for the president to want to have greater control over his cabinet these days?

NANCY PELOSI has been sending out letters:

Nancy Pelosi has sent a fundraising letter to supporters right before the FEC deadline. It opens with:

“Democrats in Congress are in a battle for the very soul of our nation with Republicans whose arrogance and abuse of power have made a mockery of the US House of Representatives. As House Democratic Leader, I should know.”

Next, Pelosi goes after Tom DeLay:

“Leading an Unethical Government. Judging by the steady stream of ethical scandals revolving around Republican House Leader Tom DeLay, involving everything from bribes and intimidation on the House Floor to junkets paid for with millions in extorted casino money, ethics must somehow be the opposite of moral values.”

Needless to say, Pelosi fails to mention her own connection to House travel and fundraising “scandals."

Hillary is sending letters, too.

HOWARD DEAN will do anything...

Howard Dean tells the Philadelphia Inquirer (registration required) Democrats will “do anything” to see Rick Santorum defeated. Dean also responded to questions about likely Democrat nominee Bob Casey, who is regularly identified as pro-life and against gun control:

“Somebody's position on choice can't be a litmus test. I'm as pro-choice as they come, [but] Bob Casey has been a tremendous friend of working people."

Dean dismissed his fellow liberal party activists who worry that Democrats are “anointing” Casey in favor of a less moderate candidate:

"It's unlikely, for example, that Bob Casey in the Senate would support these extreme nominees the President has for the courts. it’s a qualitative improvement for the community that believes in a woman's right to choose."

So, there you have it from the head of the Democratic Party. Casey may call himself pro-life, but it won’t stop him from voting pro-abortion should he get into the Senate.

I say that Howard Dean should arrange a big rally for Casey, and then let loose "the scream."

Heh.

MISSILE DEFENSE RADAR is on the way to Alaska...

Its platform is as large as two football fields:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is readying an ultra-sophisticated radar system to float slowly around the world to Alaska where it will play a key role in a multibillion-dollar project to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles.

The 2,000-ton Sea-Based X-Band Radar is to be hoisted aboard a platform as large as two football fields this week or next, depending on wind and weather in Corpus Christi, Texas, where it has been under initial sea trials.

The radar is designed to track and distinguish long-range ballistic missiles from decoys that could be used in an attack on the United States.

After being assembled and tested extensively in the Gulf of Mexico, the entire structure will set sail on a five- to seven-month trip around Cape Horn at the tip of Latin America and into the Pacific bound for Alaska's Aleutian islands.

TERRY SCHIAVO: A radiologist with a challenge:

I've watched a steady stream of neurologists, bioethicists, and neurologist/bioethicists from Columbia, Cornell, and NYU interviewed all week on Fox and CNN and MSNBC. They all said about the same thing, that Terri's CT scan was "the worst they'd ever seen"or "as bad as they've ever seen."

Here's the problem with these experts: THEY DON'T INTERPRET CT SCANS OF THE BRAIN. RADIOLOGISTS DO.

*Oh*

You see, a neurologist will look at the CT of the brain of one of his patients, but this is entirely different from interpreting CT's of the brain de novo, for a living, every day, without knowing the diagnosis and most times without a good history. In addition, whereas I heard Dr. [Ronald Cranford] say he's "seen" a thousand brain CT's... well I've interpreted over 10,000 brain CT's. There's a big difference.

When I look at a CT of the brain every case is a new mystery about a patient Idon't know. I must look at the images, come to a conclusion, dictate my findings and report a conclusion. This becomes a part of the official legal record for which I am liable. I bill Medicare for a CT interpretation and am paid for this service.

Neurologists do not do this. They don't go on the record, alone, in written legal documents stating their impressions about CT's of the brain. The neurologist doesn't get sued for making a mistake on an opinion of a CT of the brain THE RADIOLOGIST DOES.

A neurologist has no where near this type of practical experience. And their cases are skewed according to where they practice and what their specialty is. Now, some of my best friends and some of the smartest docs I eve4r met are neurologists, but that doesn't change my observation that most neurologists I've met, in my experience, show an incomplete grasp of the nuances involved in image interpretation.

I have seen several neurologists -- in the printed media and on television -- put up a Representative CT of the brain of a normal 25 year old female and contrast this with Terri Schiavo's CT. This is a totally spurious comparison. No one is disputing that Terri Schiavo does not have the CT of a 25 year old female.

What I'm saying is that Terri Schiavo's CT could be the brain of an eighty or ninety year old person who is not in a vegetative state. THOSE are the CT scans we should be showing next to Schiavo's, because in THAT case you would see similar atrophy and a brain much closer to Schiavo's.

(Via Michelle Malkin)

Note to the television networks: Drop the neurologists and bring on the radiologists.

TALKING POINTS MEMO UPDATE: ABC News and The Washington Post are both "disavowing" that the much touted memo -- pertaining to legislation that would bring relief to Terri Schiavo -- was written by Republicans.

DEMOCRATS: Pay heed and try to get a plan of your own together, rather than just saying no to the president's proposals:

(CBS/AP) President Bush suggested Wednesday that lawmakers who oppose his proposal for a Social Security overhaul could face political problems as a result.

"To answer the question of the skeptics, we do have a serious problem," Mr. Bush said in an interview aired on CBS radio affiliate WMT AM in Cedar Rapids on WHO NewsRadio in Des Moines. Mr. Bush conducted the interview at a local diner, the Spring House Family Restaurant. "Now is the time to fix it, and I think there is a political price for not getting involved in the process."

He added: "I think there is a political price for saying, 'It's not a problem, I'm going to stay away from the table.'"

MICHAEL ROGERS is still on a jihadist mission against certain bloggers.