Baby it's cold in Raleigh. In stark contrast to Governor Sleazely's spending frenzy just before he left office, Bev Perdue is slashing budgets. For all of the warm/fuzzy campaign talking points about putting citizens first, her remarks about laying state employees off seemed cold and calculating. And when they're fired, their kids can just go on Medicaid.
After all, North Carolina is very good at putting the screws to Medicaid. Some of the "right people" (especially down in Charlotte) came out very well on that deal.
I digress. This post has been sitting in my "Drafts" folder since Sunday. I almost forgot about it, until I got one of those friend-of-a-friend forwarded e-mails . . . commenting on a a story that has the potential to blow up in a lot of the "right faces in Raleigh. But, journalism being what it is, first we have to get past Obama's inauguration:
I wish this would hit the Drudge report. (After the inauguration, of course, as right now we can only focus on what kind of dog the Obamas will get, and what sort of lunch boxes do the Obama children carry, and ooooohhhh isn't that cute she has a little charm on her back pack!?).
What killed me over last weekend about the Raleigh News & Observer's coverage of Beverly Perdue's inauguration, is that on Saturday, apart from publishing craploads of photos of all the right people (at the church services, swanky parties, and swearing-in) . . . and the text of her inaugural address . . . the paper let bloggers cover it at "Under The Dome".
The substantive print was sparse. It was a throw-away news day.
Sunday, the N&O's "hook" on page one was about "political equality" finally arriving for women in North Carolina. Beverly Perdue has come me a long way (baby) from her days as a "dumpling" on the Senate floor.
They tell us that Governor Bev will be good for North Carolina.
You know, they once sold advertising that told us smoking was good for us too (indeed, back when I smoked like a stack, my preferred cancer-sticks were the menthol "Slimes").
From what I'm reading in the blogs so far (the commentary on her predecessor, Mike Easley, has been scathing), it appears that Perdue's nickname is going to be "Governor Dumpling".
It's better than "Sleazely", I suppose. Just barely.
But nicknames can change. The N&O reported Monday that the campaign promises Beverly are made are off her website. The paper says it saved a copy. Girl or not, I sincerely hope that means she won't get the free ride her predecessors (Hunt and Easley) did.
Back on topic. From the N&O Sunday gush: "Girls can do anything!", enthused 5-year-old girl scout Kennedy Walker.
Why yes, Kennedy! If you're a girl in North Carolina, you can even go to medical school and come home to serve the community where you grew up . . . only to be mauled professionally where you were mauled medically as a child. And what's so great about that, Kennedy, is that no one will care or lift a finger to help you as you pull yourself out of the ditch you were thrown in . . . because we simply can't have "arrogant & cliquish" girls saying anything bad about one of Asheboro, North Carolina's biggest employers (or the amoral morons running it) . . . especially since the men who threw you in the ditch - or helped keep you there (never wrong or sorry for anything) have "killed" the town.
Bev put one of those men on her Cabinet. Of course she did. She can do anything she wants.
Does anybody from Asheboro remember, "Because we can!"?
Bee Mayo, a 62 year-old retired state employee (and self-described feminist who was apparently enlightened enough not to promise to "obey" her husband way-back-when), said "I wasn't sure I'd ever see the day we'd have a woman governor."
Alas, like Hillary Clinton, given the machine and swamp Perdue spawned from, I think I could have waited a little while longer.
Perdue has promised to be "fully-engaged" and "hands-on".
Forgive me. I've heard variations of that before. I'll just bet she's going to be accessible and a champion of the ordinary schmucks too.
Bev's got a track record, ergo, I just don't believe it. You see, two years ago last February, I wrote Ms. Perdue (in addition to every legislator in the NC House and Senate) and begged for her help in getting my case against Randolph Hospital investigated/prosecuted.
It remains my premise ("disruptive" and misguided as eleven years of being dumped on has proven it to be) that doctors in North Carolina should not suffer retaliation for doing their sworn/licensed duty . . . for protecting patients from harm (especially the littlest/most defenseless patients) or reporting medical badness.
Furthermore, if that kind of thing is done to a physician, then the state of North Carolina should drop a can of instant whoop-ass on the heads of anyone who pulls the stunt.
Before I sent the letter/e-mail, people-in-the-know said that Beverly Perdue was an upstanding legislator . . . a real lady above the slime that her disengaged boss and some of her legislative compatriots were mired in . . . and on top of that, she was a Mother & Grandmother.
She really cares about kids, you see (their parents, apparently, not-so-much).
These people-in-the-know theorized that my plight as a doctor in public service wronged for doing the right thing by a critically-ill newborn baby whose care was being botched by someone else would certainly tug at her heart-strings. Lt. Governor Perdue would be compelled to take action . . . even if her more corrupt/slimy colleagues were inclined to dive under their desks.
Alas, I never heard from "hands-on" Bev.
I guess the health and safety of babies and children in our hospitals aren't really that important - or at least not as important as keeping the "non-profit" insurance companies afloat that won't provide affordable coverage for their care. Not that it matters. Medicaid and SCHIP are going to become the dumping ground for Pediatric healthcare. And Bev is banking on 900 million from the Feds to pay for that.
A friend of mine, a Democrat and ex-union President, went to the inauguration in Raleigh (he was rewarded with tickets because of his work for "the party"). He called Sunday morning to tell me all about it. In the wake of election results that profoundly disappoint and discourage me, I've been amazingly tolerant of gaga-eyed Democrats telling me how much better things will be once they're in charge and wracking up those trillion-dollar deficits to keep all the entitled masses happy (FDR's New Deal did not have to prop up the welfare state that it more-or-less invented, clean up systemic corruption AND put millions to work). But on Sunday morning, the notion that we're looking at four-to-eight more years of the same-crap-just-in-a-dress hit the wrong nerve, and I sort of unloaded on him.
You see, I saw an interview with Bev last week (I think it was on UNC-TV, but I cannot find the link). That interview made it crystal clear that, in this "right-to-work" state, people like my friend would be taking a back seat to people like Keith Crisco. Just like I have. Just like these state-employees-about-to-be-laid-off will be. My friend and his union are SOL. They've actually been SOL for a long while - they've just refused to see the writing on the wall.
He voted for these people. I did not. At least I can say that.
In her interview, Bev also said she was surrounded and advised by some really great/smart lawyers. We'll get to that..
I'm going to take a moment now, and review how the way that two professional women have been treated speak to the REAL state of the state for women in North Carolina:
(1) In North Carolina, a female Pediatrician in public service can see her life and practice destroyed in her own hometown for the "sins" of (A) intervening in a case being mis-managed by a male physician who (with the aide of the local hospital PR wizards) mis-represented his credentials and qualifications in Neonatology to the community, and (B) reporting what happened to the appropriate authorities.
In other words, the Ped can be threatened, then fired by the "non-profit" hospital for doing her sworn duty. North Carolina's "right-to-work" laws can be creatively interpreted in a professionally & economically-crippling fashion that shuts the doctor out and makes her "just go away". The hospital's useless/rubber-stamping Board of Directors is composed of a bunch of mill-town good-ole-boys who think nothing of paying their well-networked administrators "top-dawg" corporate salaries . . . even as they drive doctors out of town.
Neither the Medical Board nor NCDHHS lift a finger to help the doctor . . . to defend the duties they require . . . or to enforce the terms of their own contracts/site agreements. When the doctor won't back down, the legal system is used as a weapon against her (in an effort to intimidate/humiliate her into submission). Moreover she can be swindled at settlement (i.e. multiple lawyers telling multiple lies), without anyone in a position of legal or regulatory oversight even blinking - because none of the good-ole-boys are accountable to anybody.
(2) We're gonna put this under a separate category (since it's not all about me): Extending the consequences of that story (and the "visionary" business decisions hospital executives made), to other women, the babies and children of women entrusting their care to the lady Pediatrician in case #1 (whose return to the community the taxpayer financed), can lose said Pediatrician without notice or explanation. When they ask for an explanation, the hospital can bold-face LIE to them. Of course, if these women are really angry, they can always leave the "non-profit/dump" practice and go private . . . perhaps even seeing the male Family Practitioner who screwed up (and was, of course, eventually promoted to Chief of Staff) . . . or maybe one of the partners of the hospital board member who looked the other way while their Pediatrician was run out of town. Or they can stand in line to see a P.A. at the Merce Clinic.
A decade after the fact, when it comes to Pediatrics, the community of Asheboro and its women most definitely did not get what the taxpayer paid for.
(3) Over on the legal side of the aisle, an ex-candidate for NC Supreme Court finds herself under attack from the NC State Bar.
What is her crime, you ask? Did she lie to the Court? Did she lie to a client? Did she perpetuate a fraud or misappropriate funds?
The answer to all of those questions is no. Our lady lawyer's only "sin" is adopting an online moniker that the NC State Bar (having quickly/silently excused other lawyers who DID lie to the Court, and DID mislead clients and DID perpetuate a fraud - see case #1), maintains is "misleading". The Bar reasons that our lady lawyer cannot use the tag because people will instantly associate her with the NC Supremes.
Never mind that gay vampire freaks use the moniker too. And photographers. And prostitutes. And let's not forget horses. All of this is from a one-second Google search.
As an aside (and harking back to Bev's comment about being surrounded by great lawyers), I wonder if any of the "great" lawyers prosecuting Rachel have ever had a "handle" online?
That should be easy enough to find out.
This one is not about misleading clients or voters, folks. As in the case of the doctor in case #1, this one is about making someone . . . a girl the boys-in-power don't like . . . sit down and shut up. It's about free speech and the abuse of power.
And there you have it ladies and gentlemen. The REAL state-of-the-state of North Carolina when it comes to women.
The good-ole-boys standing around and behind Bev rule. The lawyers that really run the state . . . from the Attorney General's office to the Medical Board to the State Bar . . . are NOT good, particularly smart or ethical . . . they are, in fact, a bunch of "arrogant & cliquish", bullying dumb-asses.
I'd like to see Governor Bev Perdue (aka "Dumpling") do something about that before little Kimberly grows up . . . before her dreams are shattered . . . before she has to spend years of her life fighting battles she should never have to fight . . . before she is told to SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!
And ohbythedamnedway, I don't give a rat's tail what Michelle Obama wears to her husband's inauguration.
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