When "The Mother Of All Healthcare Reform" Posts Excludes The Bastard Stepchild

I submitted one of last week's Housecalls posts to this week's edition of "Grand Rounds" . . . whose host (Evan Falchuk of "SeeFirst") boasted that it would be "the Mother of all Health Care Reform Round-ups".

I did everything exactly as instructed, and sent the email in well in-advance of the deadline. Nothing bounced back.

It's the first time I've gotten no response from a Grand Rounds host (who in this case, happens to be the lawyer-son-of-a-doctor) that the post was received . . . and it's the first time since I started submitting Housecalls posts to Grand Rounds that it was not included . . . nevermind that the post could not have been MORE RELEVANT to Falchuk's topic:

Dr. Mary should have been invited to Washington to testify before Congress - before the President invited Bill Groome for a bad-bill signing.

It just seems to me that if you're going to boldly proclaim that you're giving the world "the Mother of all Healthcare Reform" posts, you should really pull back that veil.

It's been a source of contention in the past with Kevin Pho too . . . but he seems to be more open to dissent lately (Walter Olson at Overlawyered, not-so-much). In Kevin's case, maybe it's because, with the passage of this bill, the disgruntled masses actually providing the healthcare have had enough and are finally making themselves heard.

The AMA and the rest of the medical powers-that-be did not represent ordinary/front-line/primary-care physicians well at all. So pop the popcorn and get ready for a really good show. The inmates are getting ready to take over this asylum. The bastard stepchildren will wear the glass slipper. And it's about time.

Of course, I do realize that "SeeFirst", like "KevinMD" and a number of other medical blogs these days, is corporately sponsored (in Evan's case by "Best Doctors") . . . and my "more-confrontational-than-the-average-medical-bear/name-the-names-to-expose-the-guilty" style of blogging (hey, if anybody has a reason to fling tea, it's me) makes the lawyerly & establishment types VERY uncomfortable.

Lately, a few friends have wondered if I should be pull more punches. Turn the other cheek. Flies and vinegar and honey and all that. That would be all well and good if being nice and playing by the rules and laboring within the system had worked for me.

It didn't. So (tea) party on. It's the South and flies are for swatting.

Anyway, I sent a couple of e-mails to Falchuk yesterday questioning the omission, and got no response. Moreover, the blog/host ("SeeFirst") will not load its comments section for me on either "Levi" (my uber-big HP laptop) or the Acer. I don't know why . . . I've tried every trick in the book. "SeeFirst" is still coming up loaded with page errors.

But ironically, while at the hospital yesterday, I was able to access "SeeFirst" from a desk-top (being that "SeeFirst" is corporately sponsored, the blog is not considered "contraband" by the "Big Brother" computer program that routinely blocks & bans selected websites it deems not germane to the conduction of medical business). The comments came right up and I posted a response . . . with a link to the post I had submitted.

Evan replied and says he did not get the e-mail/submission and would have included the post had he gotten it. So I'll take him at his word. It's possible the e-mail I send got deleted as SPAM. But I just cannot shake the feeling that the omission was on purpose.

I just don't trust a lawyer. Can't imagine why;)

I'm also sensing that the medical blogosphere is at a critical juncture. And I'm not liking everything that I'm seeing . . . which is a not-subtle-at-all undercurrent of trying to control (even more than had already been done) what doctors read, think and say.

The White Coats must mind their manners, embrace socialism with open arms and stand behind this President.

For instance, I got from Medscape (please don't get me started) last week touting the "10 Blogs Most Read by Physicians". But the e-mail should have been entitled, "The 10 MEDSCAPE Blogs Most Read by Physicians".

Big difference.

Anyway, the "Mother-of-all-Healthcare-Reform" forums is a very good read, but it came up one short. For my story-of-woe at Randolph Hospital in Asheboro, North Carolina stands as a good example of what MORE government healthcare (poor oversight and zero administrative/organizational accountability) is going to do for doctors and patients alike.

But tomorrow is another day in the medical blogosphere.

The Real Face Of Jesus

There was an incredibly fascinating 2-hour program on the History Channel tonight where science (very respectfully) met religion to astonishing result. It focuses on the history of the Shroud of Turin . . . and lifting a three-dimensional image from the cloth.

If you believe, as I do, that image is the Face of Jesus Christ at the moment of His Resurrection . . . when death became Life, and The Father reclaimed His Son.

You'll have to watch the program to its end to see His Face. It will take your breath away.

Happy Easter week.

Legal Developments Big And Small

Two interesting legal developments today pertinent to medicine.

First (hat tip to Guarino), the AAPS (Association of Amercian Physicians & Surgeons) has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in D.C. to overturn the new healthcare bill.

Second, from the Washington Post, the Supreme Court on Tuesday placed limits on existing whistleblower lawsuits alleging local governments misused federal money, in a decision that produced newcomer Sonia Sotomayor's first dissenting opinion.

Interestingly enough, I'm indifferent about the Supreme Court's action. Despite a few "jack-pot" awards to doctors, the False Claims Act is notoriously difficult for most mere mortal whistleblowers to successfully navigate. It's a fact that I parted ways with the Semmelweis Society several years ago because of the new leadership's obsession with "Qui Tam" lawsuits . . . as opposed to using the egregious cases & examples from the military & public service alumnae amongst the organization's ranks to lobby Congress for real reform that specifically defined and punished adverse actions against medical whistle-blowers . . .

. . . which is the kind of litigation I am working to fashion now . . . just a straight-out lawsuit that says to the the state/Federal governments, Medical Board and JCAHO, "You require this (past/present/future tense) of doctors. But you don't do ANYTHING to protect or defend doctors when they do their duty. In fact, you feed them to the wolves."

Actually, there is a third development. A little bit closer to home. In the cyber-stalking case. I was notified yesterday that Judge Michael Sabiston refused a request by the Randolph County DA's office (made on Monday) to accommodate my call schedule . . . this despite a letter to the DA's office sent in February (long before the current Court date was scheduled), and the defendant having gotten every extension he wanted.

My lawyerly and pseudo-lawyerly friends were not surprised by this development, " Many victims of crimes feel like they are victimized all over again by the system . . . The Court DOES NOT CARE about you or your patients . . . (you/they are) a bug on the windshield".

Of course, after the twelve-year cluster-screw, I knew that.

I've notified the hospital where I work of the Court date, and the need for the time off.

Dr. Mary Should Have Gone To Washington First: How Obama's Healthcare Bill-Signing Ceremony Demonstrates What Is Wrong With Reform

Now that he's totally busted the budget on healthcare for decades to come, as part of a "spring offensive", Obama will be in North Carolina this week to discuss the economy (speaking of the economy, did you see the story about how Air Force One likes to use the not-busy-at-all PTI as a practice landing strip?).

In checking out that video, I came across another . . . about an Asheboro man who was invited to the signing of the new Healthcare bill.

Bill Groome received an e-mail invitation from the White House on Monday, the day before President Obama signed health care reform to law. Groome lost his job in 2008 and lost his health insurance. Groome enrolled in an individual family plan, and his premiums went up, so he wrote the president to share his story.

And that, chickadees, demonstrates everything that is WRONG with Obama's notions of "reform" . . . and why there are "tea-partiers" still out in the streets determined to see it repealed . . .

. . . and to show the polticos who voted "yes" the door in November.

A while back, Dr. Mary Johnson (also from Asheboro), e-mailed the White House too (even her future cyber-stalker liked the posts). But for her trouble, all she got were regular visits to Housecalls from the Department of Homeland Security and a pom-pom-queen-disguised-as-a-healthcare-czar pummeling her Inbox with pro-Obama propaganda (never fear, I'm off the White House's mailing list now).

Of course, as opposed to an invitation the White House for a bad bill signing, Dr. Mary would have preferred to have been invited to testify before Congress about her turn in Hillary's village . . . about the way the National Health Service Corps (Obama's . . . and John Edwards' before him . . . easy-yet-clueless answer to the primary care shortage) totally abandoned one of its own to the mill-town non-profiteers wanting to monopolize the local healthcare landscape to their own ends.

As I understand it, twelve years later, that plan is more or less a bust. Doctors are flocking away from the management style of Morrison and Eblin in droves. Their "team" isn't what it was cracked up to be.

Back on point, Dr. Mary knows a little bit about losing her job (in 1998 - ten years BEFORE Mr. Groome) . . . not because of Asheboro's "dying" economy, but because she stood up to the threats of two non-profiteering corporate bullies and did the right thing by a critically-ill baby . . . a baby whose life was saved.

For some reason, a doctor reporting what JCAHO would most certainly consider a "sentinel event" did not constitute "wrongful termination" in North Carolina. It still doesn't. And you know what? Obama's healthcare reform bill did not fix that. It didn't even get close.

And Dr. Mary Johnson is still pretty pissed off about that. She may have moved on, but she's not EVER gonna "get over it".

Because Dr. Mary's life was thrown to the dogs. You see, for her trouble of going above-and-beyond (and literally days after completing her public service obligation to the Feds), Dr. Mary was given five days to get out of her office (when her contract called for a six-month notice), and her pay-checks were doled out to her for the rest of that time on the condition of silence. It was, in practical effect, a "no-compete" without the "no-compete" . . . a bait and switch crafted by the crafty lawyers . . . which spat directly in the face of NHSC requirements.

But nobody but nobody was awake at the NHSC. The mighty omnipotent Federal government could not be bothered to oversee its own program . . . and hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars (spent to recruit two Pediatricians to Asheboro) went down the rabbit hole.

So tell me again, that handing more over to the government to do is going to be anything but a massive cluster-screw.

Dr. Mary's malpractice insurance was also immediately cancelled (despite the fact she was still privileged at the hospital, and still technically employed by the "non-profit" doing everything it could to keep her from re-establishing the practice that the Federal government said was hers to transition).

The insurance was reinstated. But only after an embarrassing incident (dare I call it another "sentinel event"?) that is a whole nuther story that Randolph Hospital in Asheboro, N.C. would like to keep buried.

And what with the state of rural healthcare what it is, the Obama administration would like to keep every aspect of this ugly NHSC failure all under wraps too. He only wants Pediatricians on his team that drink the deep blue Koolaid.

Because nothing in this story fits the kittens-&-puppies picture Obama wants to paint for the mostly-kept-in-the-dark-masses.

Of course there's more in this tale of doctor-woe that actually mirror Bill Groome's story. After she was thrown out on the street for doing her duty . . . and then black-balled for miles, self-employed and struggling to make ends meet/pay the damned lying lawyers, Dr. Mary did her stint with Cobra insurance too . . . and for better rates, was forced to use the facility that had put style before substance and fired her. If she didn't use Randolph, she paid more.

That skirts around a whole nuther story that the suits and their lawyers would like to keep buried: Dr. Mary getting surgically-mauled . . . not just once, but twice at Randolph Hospital.

She's pretty pissed off about that too - but she never sued for malpractice. And that's mostly because she knows what it's like to be sued (in her case, unsuccessfully - and essentially for not being psychic) - and because she hates the lawyers these days . . . really, really hates them.

OBTW, there's nothing about tort reform in Obama's new bill.

Now an independent contractor, Dr. Mary's on N.C. Blue Cross Blue Shield . . . North Carolina's biggest "non-profit" monopoly. And her premiums go up every year too (it's amazing how fast a premium can go from $200-300/month to over $800). But she never expected or asked the government to pay her bills. Just like she never asked to be bailed out of her mortgage when times were very bad for her (long before they were bad for anyone else).

And if all of that wasn't enough, then we have the SLAPP suit that Randolph filed . . . in a despicable attempt to intimidate Dr. Mary into silence and/or financially destroy her (she had dared respond to a government request for feedback - and once again, the government dived under its desk when she needed help) . . . the same SLAPP suit the boys at Randolph eventually had to run from (because it's basic premise - that she was a liar - was CRAP) . . .

. . . and the same SLAPP suit that has since opened a bigger, uglier can-of-worms that the IRS, JCAHO, the NHSC, NC & US DHHS, the N.C. Medical Board and state & Federal law enforcement have determinedly ignored . . .

. . . and inside that can-of-worms would be in-your-face (as yet un-investigated, un-prosecuted) perjury, contempt and fraud on the part of non-profiteering business-types trying to get out on the cheap . . . after totally destroying a good doctor's life, reputation and practice in her own hometown with their lies and obfuscation.

But hey, the Medical Board insists that you blow that whistle on bad care. And bring on the young professionals!

Asheboro loves (to eat) them.

Meanwhile, despite all the noble rhetoric about accountability and transparency and hope and change, North Carolina AG, Roy Cooper, remains deeply asleep, and Obama's Attorney General is more concerned about whether or not terrorists get a fair trial in New York City, have three square meals a day and a quiet place to pray.

And please people, let's just forget all that nonsense about the IRS policing anything in healthcare. I mean, get real. Been there, done that. We the People cannot lie to the government. But hospitals & other "non-profits", whose life-blood rests on the public's pocketbook, can lie to us without so much as a slap on the hand.

OBTW, on the state level, let me just make the observation that Governor Dumpling is uber-late to the "let's fight fraud & abuse" party (and psst . . . with Asheboro's Keith Crisco on her arm, all the talk about ethics falls flatter than a dead possum hit by a drunk driver on a pot-holed North Carolina road).

There is a whole lot wrong with healthcare that Obama's precious "reform" bill does not begin to address. He/Pelosi/Reid/the rest did not even TRY to address those problems - it was ALL just about a quick fix to BUY votes. And that's because, like so many of the do-gooding, all-knowing Democrats who have come before #44 (in Washington and in Raleigh), Obama did not want to hear or consider the ugly stories (like Mary Johnson's) that might throw water on his "historic" fire.

Bill Groome, on the other hand, literally fits his bill.

Hope & real change is not for those of us who have paid our dues and spilt literally pools of blood in public service - on the front lines of healthcare - yet (once again) have been splattered like bugs on the headlight of Obama's "reform" train.

No. Like Clinton before him, President Barrack Hussein Obama desperately needed a legacy. He needed to prove he could get something done . . . never mind that in this particular instance, nothing would have been better than the un-Constitutional/pseudo-socialist something (filled with unintended consequences that should keep the lawyers going for years) that he and this Congress (acting like a bunch of Chicago goons) Rahmed through on a pile of back-room deals and outright bribery.

The point kind of IS that Dr. Mary Johnson should have been invited to Washington to testify before Congress LONG BEFORE Bill Groome ever set foot in the White House to see healthcare reform legislation signed.

His story is only half the story. Always has been.

There are a whole lot of Dr. Mary's out there now . . . particularly a virtual army of disgusted/demoralized primary care docs and small-business owners itching to get out from under a system-drenched-in-entitlement that does nothing but pound them further into the ground . . . and punish them for their hard work and "success" . . . while giving more and more of their labor away "for free" . . . and winking & nodding while the really phat cats keep getting rich and getting off.

Obama's real message to us is, "Know your place in my great scheme of things. And just don't make more than $250,000/year (not that most of us in primary care can) . . . lest your "wealth" be redistributed" to the masses we don't have enough of you to take care of.

And I say to these people now flinging the tea . . . people who are done with sitting down and shutting up . . . welcome to my world and my party!

But really, where the hell have you-all been until now?

"We Will Accept It As The Will Of God"

In my time on the road, I've been behind many an eighteen-wheeler very late at night . . . or in the wee hours of the morning . . . that was weaving all over the road.

I've gotten on my CB radio (yes, Dr. Mary owns a CB radio . . . and no, you may not know my handle) and told them to pull over . . . or even called 911/the Highway Patrol to pull them over.

Most of the time it was a tired, sleepy trucker just trying to make up some miles. Of course, I have a soft spot in my heart for truckers - as there are several in the family and extended family.

This is just horrific and so sad. Authorities apparently don't know yet what happened to make the truck cross the median . . . did the driver have a heart attack or a stroke or a seizure . . . did he swerve away from something and lose control . . . did he just fall asleep?

For eleven souls it doesn't really matter anyway.

And they rest safe in the arms of God now. Many is the day I wish I could have the simple faith of a Mennonite.

But alas, I'm just a tad too doubtful . . . too headstrong . . . too angry . . . too "freaky".

Over The River And Through The Woods

When we were kids, going to Grandma's house meant making the 4 hour trek down East on the then-mostly-two-lane 64 and 264. One of the landmarks in the game of "Are we there yet?" was the Chatham County Courthouse . . . which sat smack-dab in the middle of the highway . . . and you had to drive around in a traffic circle. The structure simply would not be ignored. Even in it's near dilapidated state (the last time I saw it), it was a gorgeous building of great character.

Despites my many treks down 64, I had not seen the Courthouse in a long while. The by-pass completely by-passed the landmark.

I find this very, very sad. And somewhat suspect given the small matter of the Edwardian sex tape. I wonder if some misguided someone was trying to destroy it.

Like Disney World Without Going To Florida

Maybe I should have held off on getting the accelerator and the mat fixed.

Randolph County's Legal Rabbit Hole

Greg Taylor made the front page of CNN yesterday.

As I've said before, it's great that North Carolina has an "innocence commission". But it's very sad that the state of our legal system is in such sorry shape that we need one.

Getting some interesting feedback from lawyerly-&-pseudo-lawyerly-types on my (not unexpected) problems with the local DA in the cyberstalking case. Of course, I learned, during my civil case against Randolph, that the law does not work in the cool/efficient/fair way most ordinary plebes think it does . . . truth & justice generally go out the window pretty early.

Most of us rabbits don't really have a clue until we fall into the hole. And victims of crime in this state (despite all of our much ballyhooed "rights"), are pretty much SOL.

We (as in the "we" in the people) don't exist. We don't merit returned correspondence or phone calls.

Continuing on with the plan of "live-blogging" this experience (as opposed to rolling terrified and speechless into the fetal position), I'll be working it all into a post at some point.

Perhaps, in this instance, I am using vinegar instead of honey (alas, that jar got busted and the bees feasted long ago), but my position remains this: Asking for a continuance on behalf of the victim in this case . . . a victim who has special responsibilities and duties to a community and to society (especially given the fact that the perpetrator has already had two) . . . would be a fairly simple (and simply fair) thing to do.

One has to wonder why it's such a "challenge" for the office of Garland Yates.

"Why, Sometimes I've Believed As Many As Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast."

This afternoon, kidnapped by friends who thought I needed it, I paid a visit to Wonderland.



As always, Depp is the bomb. And that cat was a scream.

Quite an inspiring movie, given recent events. Tea anyone?

It Was For The Children . . .

. . . apparently not.

Update: Oprah vs. Nomvuyo Mzamane

Related to the Housecalls post featured on this week's Grand Rounds:

Case moved forward. Oprah settled case. I, for one, am sorry to hear that. It would have been quite the show.

Cyberstalking Case Update: The Randolph County DA's Office And Habitual Intemperance

As I blogged yesterday, we've got "a bit of a problem" with the next scheduled hearing of the cyberstalking case against Jeff Martin, aka "Fecund Stench".

Of course, I'm not really sure why we need a hearing . . . or what's to contest . . . given that Martin confessed online and on TV, but (of course) it is Randolph County.

Anyway, as I blogged earlier, I was subpoenaed by phone a few weeks back and told that I needed to be in Court on May 4th.

Prior to getting that subpoena, no one from the Randolph County DA's office had contacted me AT ALL . . . even after getting the letter I sent to Garland Yates by certified mail on February 15th (alluding the the special circumstances of a call schedule more or less carved in stone) . . . AND after the case had already been continued TWICE at the convenience of Mr. Martin and/or his attorney.

Let's review. From my letter to the DA:

As the only Pediatrician covering call at a small-town hospital in Eastern N.C., 24/7, 3 weeks a month, my absence during scheduled coverage time would inconvenience a lot of people - patients and doctors alike. If/when this case goes to trial, I hope that your office and Mr. Martin’s attorney can work within the constraints of my call schedule with regards to my appearance at any hearing.

My call schedule is already rolled out for the year. It's especially tight this spring and summer. In May, I will only have four days off/home the entire month because I am already covering extra time off (a relatively new development) for the only Pediatric colleague who covers for me the week I am not working down East (four hours away).

Moreover, I've had ZERO follow-up from the Randolph County Sheriff's Department on the anonymous commenter who occasionally drops a creepy and/or threatening jab on the blog (the reason comments here on Housecalls are currently closed). Is it Fec or is it not Fec? That is the question.

Very late this afternoon, I got a call from the DA's office that automatically went to voice mail (I'm home this week and was enjoying the end of a rare family day with my Mom and my brother). In the message, ADA Peter Rosentrader very curtly informed me that he had met with the judge, and they had decided to schedule a "special session" for this case on May 3rd. A subpoena would be issued for my appearance.

I did NOT ask for a special session . . . only that my call schedule be taken into consideration when a hearing was scheduled. I generally have one week a month to work with. And I was previously told (by the Randolph County "victim's advocate") that it would "not be a problem at all".

When I got the message, I muttered a few unprintables, and promptly phoned the DA's office back as soon as I got home. I was put to voice mail. Once again, I explained my circumstances . . . advising Mr. Rosentrader that May 3rd was going to be very difficult for me to accommodate. I gave him the dates I would be home in May . . . and told him I could give him my dates in June and July (another tight month in terms of call), if that was necessary.

Mr. Rosentrader called me back (it felt/sounded like I was on speaker phone - which I HATE), and I just got off the phone with him before composing this post. It was a contentious conversation. The ADA offered no explanation or apology for scheduling the date without contacting me first . . . in fact, that's apparently my fault because I did not give him specific dates in the letter his office never responded to.

(Of course, not responding to correspondence and putting people on speaker phones without asking permission to do so has been a bit of a problem before.)

The "reason" Mr Rosentrader gave for moving the date up was that he wanted me to get my day in Court, and to make sure I didn't have to sit through an entire session/day without the case being heard (very honestly, if the case were scheduled for a week that I was off, I would not mind having to come back the next day - indeed, I half-way expected that to happen anyway, and that is why I wanted the date scheduled for a week when I am home).

Indeed, while conversing with Mr. Rosentrader, all I could do was think back to the days when I actually worked in Asheboro and testified pro-bono for DSS . . . answering every phone call . . . saying "yes" to everything . . . literally scheduling and re-scheduling precious office time around the Courts . . . only to sit, wait, and be told to come back the next day (and the lawyers all wonder why they can't get doctors to do child abuse exams for them).

NONE of the judges or DA's gave treating a doctor/her scheduled patients & parents like dirt a second thought back then.

Why now?

As the victim in this case, it's the DA's position that I have six weeks until the date to adjust my call schedule (and the call schedule of another doctor) to that of the judge (on the pretense he's doing me a favor) - not to mention the perpetrator (who, despite his online bravado and stated intent to destroy Mary Johnson, has needed two continuances thus far to get his legal strategy in order).

Mr. Rosentrader does not want to "challenge" the judge on the date (???Challenge??? How can this very reasonable request possibly be construed as a "challenge"???).

In fact, he compared my scheduling conflict to that of a long-distance trucker . . . after I told him that he just didn't get it (and he clearly doesn't . . . just like King Dozier didn't get it when he threatened to have me arrested in Virginia and brought back by deputies in order to testify in the rape case that wasn't . . . back then, I was covering for a physician dying of cancer . . . but hey, NO BIGGIE). Telling the ADA that he didn't get it was, "a personal attack".

Who is this guy trying to kid?

OBTW, the judge that Mr. Rosentrader apparently cannot challenge or approach about a schedule change is The Honorable Michael Sabiston.

Now, in stark contrast, Asheboro City Council member, Clark Bell, representing Mr. Martin, can write a letter, tell the Court he will be out of town, and the Court automatically re-schedules the date.

It wasn't a "challenge" at all.

There is something seriously smelly (as in smells like a railroad yard) about this picture, folks.

Here's the thing chickadees. I don't think this scheduling hard-ball is about me getting my date in Court AT ALL. I think this is about the Randolph County District Attorney's office wanting to get this done as quietly and under-cover as is possible . . . or to get me to drop it.

You see, the last thing in this world Garland Yates wants to do is own up to the reason why I'm in the blogosphere in the first place . . . being called every vile nasty name under the sun by people going by monikers like "Fecund Stench" - people who post their libelous bile as "satire". And that reason is because if you look up "habitual intemperance" in the dictionary, you will find the lawyers of the Randolph County DA's office.

THE FACT IS THAT IF THIS DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE HAD DONE ITS JOB SEVEN YEARS AGO, AND REFERRED MY CASE FOR PERJURY, CONTMEPT & FRAUD AGAINST "NON-PROFIT" RANDOLPH HOSPITAL EXECUTIVES TO THE NORTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, I WOULD NOT BE IN THIS BLOGOSPHERE FOR JEFF MARTIN TO INSULT, THREATEN AND LIBEL.

As a mere "ordinary" citizen and as a physician bound by professional obligation and duty, I am so sick of being treated like dirt by the North Carolina legal system . . . particularly the North Carolina legal system as it is manifested in Randolph County.

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do about this Court date. There is no good/easy way I can make it work. And I'm not clear at all on why I'm the one being forced to make it work.

Patients come first. Period. They came first that fateful night twelve years ago (when the bullies were not lawyers, but Randolph Hospital executives), and they come first now. And right now, 3/4 of the time, I'm "it" in that far-Eastern county for in-patient hospital care. I honestly cannot fathom what about that is so hard for a lawyer . . . be they an ADA, an Asheboro City Council member, or a District judge . . . to understand.

I'm being treated like "the perp", instead of the victim of a crime.

To top things off, I opened my e-mail this evening to find a message from Linnea's in my Inbox. Linnea's is a clothing store in Greensboro that caters to plus-sized women and is run by Jeff Martin's wife, Jody. Regular readers know that, as a "big girl" (5-10/size 18), I used to be a customer . . . a fairly good customer (for someone who lived OOT).

I literally put money in the man's pocket.

The store moved from one location to another a while back, and is moving again . . . this time to State Street. I sincerely wish Jody good luck. But really, after everything her husband has done, am I EVER going to set foot in her store again . . . and should I need to ask to be taken off her mailing list?

This mess all got started when I challenged "Fec" in the thread of the horrible hatchet-job post his did on Mike Baron (of Dam-Scam) back in November . . . and chided him about how some of the things he said and did (especially the riffs on "fat people") in the ether might not reflect very well on his wife . . . who, as I have REPEATEDLY said, is a nice lady (who loves him very much) and a smart businesswoman.

But Martin took the mere mention of his wife as an "attack" and banned me from commenting on the thread. So I did what the blogging big-guns in Greensboro (Hi Sue!) call "top-leveling" and challenged what he had done in a post here at Housecalls. He didn't like what other bloggers said about his behavior on that thread (I was supposed to somehow stop them . . . like his hero Cone stops Conings) . . . he was "provoked" (apparently beyond all reason) to jump from blogging to cyber-stalking . . . and the rest is history.

I'm gonna admit. I've written this thing while I'm angry and disgusted.

But really people, at this point in the law enforcement and blogging games, wouldn't you be too?

Grand Rounds: All About Women

The medical blogosphere's latest edition of Grand Rounds is up at "Suture-For-A-Living".

The theme was women and medicine. I made it "all about me" as I submitted last week's post on Oprah and what getting SLAPP-sued for "libel" can do to someone.

My thanks to Dr. Bates for including the post. And welcome, new readers.

Welcome To My World - The IRS

Fox News reports that with "Obozocare" the IRS is to become a Healthcare "Enforcer", but LACKS THE AUTHORITY TO ENFORE"

Now, where have I heard that before?

Hummmmmmm . . . I wonder if the little-ole-nothing case of Dr. Mary Johnson vs. Randolph Hospital (I mean, it's only about a pair of "non-profit" executives covering up badness with PERJURY and SLAPP suits) is remotely "relevant" yet?

Blowing kisses to blow-hard Sam and all the progressive (equally blow-hard) Ed Cones-of-this-world who, with an act of Congress, are about to learn lessons they never dreamed of learning.

Speaking of blow-hards, I got a call from the DA's office yesterday (since bringing the charges against Jeff Martin I've yet to actually speak to a DA . . . as the entire bunch of lawyers at that Courthouse is apparently incapable of reading a letter or picking up a phone - instead of putting a poor minion in the middle). I had to take one of the cats to N.C. State yesterday (the vet hospital), and I've got to take Mom to the doctor today, so I don't have time to blog on it now, but I will go ahead and pose the question . . .

. . . how is a citizen supposed to have any respect for the Court, when they threat you with nothing but CONTEMPT?

I wasn't writing that letter to practice my penmanship, Garland. Jeff Martin (and Roch Smith and Ed Cone and John Robinson) and all the rest have been given license to libel me and treat me like an online disease because YOU HAVE NOT DONE YOUR JOB.

And one way or another, I'm done with that.

Like I said America, welcome to my world. All the laws in the world don't mean a hill of beans if no one will enforce them.

Welcome To My World

I've spent twelve years trying to get the United States government to right one wrong.

On this "historic" day, all I have to say to the rest of you is welcome to my world. You're about to find out how stupid things really are.

And for some of you, there's a whole lot of poetic justice in that.

As The Vote Approaches . . .

Since the end of last week, I've been watching the government of this once-great nation twist and turn into a pathetic mockery of "the Chicago Way" (hat tip to Guarino) with a combination of despair and dismay. And I've not known what to say. Truly, I've been at a loss for words . . . not to mention hope or change.

It's one of those days when you wish it would rain. Because the world just feels dirty.

I want healthcare reform. Hell, I've needed it FOR YEARS. But this isn't it. And it isn't the way to do it.

Then a commenter at Joe's took the words out of my mouth like Dumbledore pulling a bad dream out of Harry Potter's noggin with his wand:

Just one question to all who voted for Barack Obama: Is this what you wanted to see happen? Is this what you really hoped you would see? Or do you now think you were sold a huge bill of goods? That you were hoodwinked? That you were bamboozled?

I believe there are millions of Obama voters who feel that way today. The entire process, the deceit, the obfuscation, the outright lies, have been beneath contempt. Four years from now, will the waiting times to see physicians or to have surgical procedures be any shorter? Will there be less bankruptcies due to poor or no health insurance? Will there still be new prescription drugs, new medical devices or new breakthroughs in medical research? Obama's sales job has morphed into one over-promise after another and that has morphed into a string of half-truths and tall tales.

The vast majority of Americans believe there should be health care reform. They just don't want this giant bag of crap. But the message from Obama and the Democrats is clear: Sit down. Shut up (Now, where have I heard that before?). Eat your vegetables. We know what's best for you.

Since the days of Hillary's village, the Democratic Party has not had a clue what was best for me. Worse still, despite all of the flowery rhetoric about ethics and accountability and transparency, they have not cared. I would not be in this blogosphere if they did.

And I'm thinking that if this bad dream of a bill is passed . . . on a pile of lies and in-your-face bribery . . . there are going to be a whole lot more Mary Johnsons out there . . . who will make their presence known in the Courts and at the voting booth:

We know what best for you. Sit down. Shut up. Go home.

Ooo-rah.

When You KNOW You've Been PLAYED FOR A FOOL By The North Carolina Attorney General For Nearly 7 Years

There are days when things all come together, and you figure out that you've been PLAYED FOR A FOOL by people and institutions that are charged with the public good . . . with protecting you and upholding the law.

Today was such a day.

One of the things that made the light come on is something that I cannot blog about. I want to blog about it. I want to expose JCAHO & NCDHHS oversight for abject FRAUD that it is. For when it comes to real oversight - and who to give credence to - these two organizations are MASTERS OF THE ABSURD. But this time I'm merely an observer . . . on the periphery . . . it's not my business . . . and for now, I'm going to just hold onto it. But let's just say it's a real study in contrasts.

Then I got home. And in my evening surf, I came across the following headline at the Raleigh N&O:

State Mental Health Worker GUILTY of FAILING TO REPORT ABUSE

Key words: Failing to report abuse.

From the story:

A former employee of a state mental hospital in Goldsboro pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of failing to report abuse.

Eric Jerrod Isler was one of three Cherry Hospital employees charged with felony assault by state prosecutors following a 2008 article in The News & Observer about the severe beating of patient Dean G. Smith.

Obviously, the guy probably did a little bit more than "fail to report abuse". But the point kind of is that, as a healthcare worker/provider, you can be PROSECUTED for not reporting abuse.

But here's where it gets really good:

The N.C. Attorney General’s office took responsibility for the case after the local district attorney initially dropped all charges against the three state workers, who lost their jobs at the hospital after the 2006 incident.

I repeat, the North Carolina Attorney general took responsibility for the case AFTER a District Attorney failed to take action.

Now I ask you, does this sound AT ALL familiar?

I dropped a comment on the story (I've modified it slightly here for emphasis):

So let me get this straight. You can be convicted of a crime if you FAIL TO REPORT patient abuse at a state healthcare facility (in this case abuse you were probably a part of)?

BUT if you do report malpractice at at "non-profit" healthcare facility (indeed if you intervene to STOP it), your life and career can be totally disrupted/derailed (without the government so much as blinking an eye), YOU CAN- IN FACT - BE SUED FOR REPORTING and the North Carolina Attorney General's office will not lift a finger?

Seething. This state is messed up.

You see, the TRUTH is that I am a physician-in-good-standing duly licensed by the great state of North Carolina. I did what the Medical Board insists is my duty and reported bad care at a "non-profit" hospital . . . defying threats to do it. In point of fact, I could have been sued for malpractice had I rolled over and gone back to sleep and let that baby die on that fateful night twelve years ago . . . not to mention disciplined/prosecuted for failing to report.

And on the flip side (the "Catch-22" of it all), in retaliation for doing my duty as a physician in public-service, the "non-profit" hospital maliciously ripped my life in my own hometown to shreds and irrevocably altered/derailed my career. They pulled every, nasty, dirty trick in the book including a DESPICABLE "SLAPP" suit. And when I finally dragged them to trial, they swindled me at settlement with as-yet-uninvestigated/unprosecuted perjury, contempt and fraud.

And the TRUTH is that the state and Federal governments/Attorneys General (lawyers for DHHS) could have done something about it a very long time ago. Instead of stone-walling me for almost seven years - bouncing me from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, they could have told Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin and their rubber-stamping of "right people" Board members to MAKE IT RIGHT OR ELSE.

They could have told Randolph Hospital in Asheboro, North Carolina: "You get your sorry, greedy, lying butts to a table and you do what it takes to make it up to Dr. Johnson OR you can kiss your non-profit status and your Medicaid/Medicare eliligibility and your accreditation and your certificates-of-need and your very right to keep your front doors open GOODBYE. And OBTW your two top executives can go to jail."

But despite all of the noble blather about "reform" and accountability and transparency and ethics, our Attorney General did not do that.

Dr. Mary Johnson, not "right people", was medical road-kill.

And Roy Cooper does not care . . . just as Mike Sleazely before him did not care.

Very truthfully, I've been wavering on proceeding with suing the Medical Board and JCAHO and NC/USDHHS. Seriously wavering. I've never, ever wanted to go there. I'm sick of the lawyers - especially the ones in this blogosphere who cannot admit that the oversight in their own profession is seriously broken.

But if I ever did not know what I have to do, I know it now.

I'm gonna have me some social change.

On Oprah Winfrey And Nomvuyo Mzamane And A Defamation Lawsuit In Philly

I'm sitting here tonight watching Michael Moore's head spin and his partisan, "progressive" bile spew on CNN's "Situation Room", and I cannot believe how angry I am that this abject moronic blow-hard can command any time at all on the airwaves.

This nation has given itself over to the cult of celebrity, and IDIOTS are leading our way. The Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves.

Michael Moore is NOT a healthcare expert. He's a Hollywood film-maker. Of bad/boring films.

Once upon a time, I used to watch Oprah Winfrey. In her younger days, she pushed limits and challenged authority/the status quo. These days . . . well . . . let me just say that anyone who equates not being let into a Hermes store after hours with racism has some serious Riellity issues.

But then came a lawsuit by some Texas cattlemen accusing Oprah of "libeling" them and their industry . . . after she said she was "stopped cold" from eating hamburger anymore (obviously, it was a temporary affliction) while doing a show on "Mad Cow".

While defending that lawsuit, Oprah withdrew into a shell of her former self. I knew her pain and felt sorry for her . . . and cringed at the change. She filled the void by chasing glitz and endorsing woo and ogling celebrity . . . by reading fluff, passing easy judgments and ultimately choosing Presidents. In the process, she became what she once despised.

She became the cattlemen.

How do I get there, you ask?

A few years back, a girls school in South Africa that Oprah had funded into being was thrown into the spotlight when allegations of sexual abuse erupted.

Oprah went into full damage-control mode (much as she did when she ripped author, James Fey, into a "Million Little Pieces") and pulled out all the stops in terms of deflecting her own accountability for what happened at the school (thus protecting her deep pockets).

You would've thought she was a Randolph Hospital Board member.

Anyway, in pulling out all the stops, while meeting with angry/disillusioned parents of the girls (and in a subsequent press conference) Oprah made some fairly nasty remarks about the school's (now former) headmistress, Nomvuyo Mzamane.

Entertainment & ad industry executives have always marveled at Oprah's ability to "make" people. But being able to "make" them means you can also "break" them.

Mzamane, who came to the school with impressive credentials, has said she was unable to find work because of Winfrey's comments.

Mzamane, a mere guppy in the accountability food chain that led to uber-shark Oprah, fought back, suing Lady O for defamation:

Mzamane accused Winfrey of suggesting she was not trustworthy through comments about the need for new leadership and remarks such as "I thought she cared about the girls of South Africa," according to the October 2008 lawsuit.

Oprah's lawyers (talk about a job that would have you set for life) argued that Oprah was merely expressing an opinion. The problem with that argument is that in this instance, Oprah was not just a citizen, she was an employer, and what Oprah said about Mzamane (that she had been purposefully clueless about what was going on right under her nose) could have been just as easily said about Oprah.

A Philadelphia judge has refused to dismiss Mzamane's case, and it will proceed to trial on the merits:

"The implication that (Mzamane) was aware of abuse by the dorm parents and did not react accordingly is capable of defamatory meaning as it ascribes conduct which would render her unfit for her profession as an educator," (Judge Edwardo) Robreno wrote in the 128-page opinion.

And I am loving it.

Now some bloggers in our local ether have criticized me for taking situations and making them "all about me". It's certainly a whole lot easier than addressing the facts, doing anything to fix what's wrong, or confronting/acknowledging their own hypocrisy. We all view the world through our own prisms of experience. And here's how mine (which dates back to Hillary's "village") relates to Oprah's current tale of woe . . .

After I was fired (once again, for defying the threats of clueless/greedy executives higher up in the hospital food chain . . . threats that were based the BOGUS, TRUMPED-UP MUSINGS of a very entitled VIP dentist . . . threats that, if heeded, might have resulted in the death of an infant), I sued "non-profit" Randolph Medical Associates (as opposed to its "parent company" Randolph Hospital) . . .

. . . the same "non-profit" Randolph Medical Associates that had entered into an agreement with the Federal government that wound up bringing two Pediatricians to Asheboro . . . by sealing the medical-school-loan-repayment-for-service-deal that John Edwards used to advocate as a way to save healthcare.

But when push came to shove and I needed the Feds to enforce ALL of the terms of that agreement, the Feds dived under their desks in Atlanta, Bethesda and Washington.

Oversight of the "non-profit's" actions . . . and of the program itself was non-existent.

Still is. And guess what? It's not going to be fixed by the bad reform bill that Michael Moore wants the President & Democratic leadership to bully through.

In filing the lawsuit, my original intent was to secure the fiscal means (i.e. compensatory damages) to re-establish my practice (the one RMA had absorbed & basically handed over to Kathleen Riley) as a private enterprise in Asheboro, and persuade Dr. Laurie Anderson to stay in Asheboro (because let's be clear, there was NO WAY she was going to remain with RMA for any length of time) and join me.

One of my original legal claims was slander. For in attempting to defend the decision to fire me, as he/Steve Eblin pulled every dirty trick in the book to shut me up, Randolph Hospital's CEO, Bob Morrison, told parents and colleagues who questioned his actions that I was "not a team player".

It was a stupid thing to do. In this case, Bob was Oprah.

Now, in Bob's book, team players are apparently the kind of physicians who would have hung up the phone when they were awakened in the middle of the night (by a terrified nurse asking them to help a patient-not-even-their-own) . . . rolled over and gone back to sleep.

In Bob's book, and in Randolph Hospital's book, team players let babies die.

So, in this case, not being a team player was actually a good thing. And it's absolutely true that I don't play on such teams.

But that's NOT what Bob was meaning to infer/imply to the people he was trying to pacify. Mary was "difficult". Mary was "disruptive". Mary was "a little wacky". And it was very professionally damaging to me.

And despite my ultimate legal "win" (after three years of what can only be described as HELL), Bob's myth has persisted to this day. The micro-managing nimnuls running RMA held Mary Johnson to impossible standards of scrutiny & behavior that no other physician at RMA or Randolph Hospital has ever been held (for instance, at approximately the same time Bob was burying the case-against-the Cone-owned-Neonatologist-wannabe . . . and trashing me . . . he was harboring an Obstetrician who had aborted his own out-of-wedlock child).

Mary, you see, was supposed to cope with every broken promise . . . and take every sling and arrow in her back . . . please every parent no matter what they wanted . . . not to mention clean up every dump . . . with a smile on her face and then say, "Please, Sir, May I have some more?"

To witness the myth . . . and the damage that carries through to this day . . . one need look no further than the libelous musings of Roch Smith, Jr. or Jeff Martin (aka "Fecund Stench") right here in the local blogosphere.

Bob's remarks, and the actions of at least one of his now long-gone (like the Obstetrician, like the Neonatologist-wannabe) underlings, made it IMPOSSIBLE for me to find work locally or even in adjoining towns. Recruiters told me (and later Dr. Anderson) that we should "give up" on North Carolina altogether!?!

Getting over it and moving on meant giving up on my home.

The harder I fought, the more the myth grew . . . even as I successfully turned to Locums work as a way to make a living and not give up completely on my home. It stands to reason that "difficult", "disruptive", "wacky" people would not be able to make that transition work . . . or enjoy the success at it that I have.

But let's get back to my original lawsuit and the slander, claim. I wish I had had Judge Edwardo Robreno hearing my case. But I was in a Randolph County Courtroom. And in a Randolph County Courtroom, the good-old-boys rule. The claim for slander was summarily dismissed. The judge "didn't think" that what Bob did (as my employer and CEO of the hospital where I had privileges) rose to the level of slander.

"Your Pediatrician . . . the woman to who you entrust the care of your children . . . is not a team player." No (insert sarcasm). Not that wasn't damaging at all.

However, the other claims were allowed to proceed.

And that invited a SLAPP-suit. Bob & company were going to take Mary Johnson down (these days, that's a job for cyber-stalking bloggers).

And the rest is history.

The really, really beautiful thing about this mess now (if there is a beautiful thing in this to be found) is that, as a former employee of the wholly-owned affiliate of "non-profit" Randolph Hospital . . . as a patient who was surgically mauled there as a child (and again as an adult) but who came home anyway . . . as a home-grown doctor who was used, abused and thrown away like so much garbage (reward for standing up to threats and saving a life) . . . as a public servant who was sued for telling the truth to the government I served . . . and as an "ordinary", "wrong-people" litigant ultimately swindled out of everything I worked so hard to build by as-yet-uninvestigated/unprosecuted-perjury . . . I can now openly express my opinion about the two-bit Band Aid station whose gutless, rubber-stamp Board of Directors & Corporate Membership (who are now apparently afraid of being identified) allowed two third-rate hospital executives to lie, cheat and steal their way through a cover-up . . . and gave them phat raises for doing it.

You see, I've earned that opinion. And it's truth I can more than defend. With hard, black & white evidence. It's why I have not been sued again despite six years on the Internet trying to get someone in a position-of-oversight to care. None of the lying, cheating, and/or negligent principles in this mess (a good many of them lawyers) want this thing in Court.

I really don't either. But right now it's looking like that's where we're gonna wind up.

It's time to facilitate some social change.

I've marvelled and brooded this week over what journalists think is important. The idiot-known-as-Michael Moore is on CNN telling the American public to vote for what he admits is a bad healthcare bill because that's what his socialisto hero, President Barack Obama needs to remain viable in office. Meanwhile, a scantily-clad Rielle Hunter (who has arguably done everything wrong that a woman could do wrong) can babble adolescent woo-speak . . . drape the poor, unfortunate "love child" of Johnny Reid Edwards as a prop over her bare belly (the emotional equivalent of child abuse) . . . and be splattered all over the front page of every Internet news site on the planet.

But Dr. Mary Johnson, daughter of a school-teacher, Pediatrician who came home and did everything right (and paid a very high personal price for it), is sneered at and spat upon by so-called "reporters" who dismiss her story as "too old" or not "relevant" to the corruption of the current day . . .

. . . when it actually could not be more relevant to how we got to where we are.

And OBTW, I'm supposed to feel sorry for Ruffin Poole . . . the ex-"go-to-guy" for ex-Governor Sleazely. I'm supposed to buy that the baby-faced lawyer who controlled all access to his boss is just a pawn in a bigger game.

From one pawn to another, Ruffin. Boo-hoo. Start squealing.

In my post on Rielle Hunter, I quoted a Mother commenting on the N&O's better-late-than-never coverage of the Edwards fiasco. I've mused over that quote quite a bit since putting the post up. It might as well have been my Mom, the first grade school-teacher who gave thirty years of her life to Asheboro . . . only to see Asheboro's "right people" literally piss on the hopes and dreams of her daughter:

I'm sorry I encouraged my daughter to go to a good college and then into medical school. Now she's working like a dog to make her residency, when all she had to do was get pregnant by some rich guy and she'd have a guaranteed payday for life.

And/so, in the end, this fight is hardly only about me. This fight is about that nameless naive newbie, still in residency who has yet to hit the cold cruel world full of liars with MBA's & law degrees, and sleazeball politicians, and utterly-clueless celebrities standing ready to devalue her labor . . . reduce her to indentured servitude . . . minimize her hard work & sacrifice . . . use her like a pawn to their own selfish/entitled ends . . . slander & libel her good name . . . and irrevocably alter the options she will have in her future.

Judge Edwardo Robreno got this one right. And I hope the lowly Nomvuyo Mzamane kicks Oprah Winfrey's giant, heavily air-brushed ass.

3/23 Update:

Well, that was fast. Case can move forward. Oprah settles case.

I, for one, am sorry to hear that. I would have enjoyed the show.

For Everyone Who Is Irish Today

The first time I saw Ireland, homeland of some of the ancestors, I was on a ferry coming in from England. It was a foggy day.

Suddenly, the fog parted and there it was. Forty shades of the most incredible, deep, complex green you've ever seen. I picked up a rock from a stream once I got there, and even the rock was layered with ancient green.

In honor of St. Paddy's day, I present for Housecalls readers my favorite Irish song, Bonny Portmore. It's about an Irish tree . . . not Scottish Highlanders.

Could We Please Get On To The Part Where Ruffin Squeals Like A Pig?

The Raleigh N&O continues to follow the sleaze . . . about a decade too late . . . with two bam-bam articles on former NC Governor Sleazely aide, Ruffin Poole, who is now trying to legally manuever his way out of fifty-some felony charges.

Not feeling the love. Said my peace in the comments of both stories.

I'm thinking the Feds learned their lesson with Jim Black, and have good reason not to handle Mr. Poole with kid gloves.

Was typing so fast this morning, I mis-spelled "squeal";)

"SLAPPed" In A Good Way

Last week's Housecall's post on Anti-SLAPP lawsuits (the one that preceded Candidate-for-Guilford-County-Commissioner Sam Spagnola's uber-lame attempt at intimidation) was featured on the latest edition of the medical blogosphere's "Grand Rounds".

My thanks to Dr. Kim. And welcome new readers.

Rielle Hunter & Johnny Reid: The Kooky Skank Speaks

This John Edwards love-child story is the gift that just keeps on giving. It's the best entertainment we less-than-progressives have had since "the blue dress". Rielle Hunter, in the midst of suing to get her sex tape back (with no visible way of paying the lawyers), has given an interview to GQ magazine.

Not 60 Minutes. Not 20/20. Gentlemen's Quarterly. I guess they'll wanna be nominated for a Pulitzer now.

Rielle met "Johnny Reid" on a New York City street corner. Who'da thunk it?

The Raleigh N&O is all over the story. A number of comments had been posted by the time I got to it, but they're all gone now (Afternoon Update: they're back up). Very strange. But again (given the love-affair with the Edwardses that the N&O is still getting over) somehow not.

With civil litigation pending, it's hard to wrap my head around any good reason for Reille to utter a word publicly. But a closer look reveals this to be part of some sick, warped game plan to discredit Andrew Young. Rielle gives the newest Edwardian plot-to-obfuscate away in the interview: Young was the mastermind behind the magical mystery tour. John Edwards, the man who wanted to run the United States of America was his hapless victim.

And OBTW, "the wrath of Elizabeth is a mighty wrath" (of course that was a given - given some of Elizabeth's friends).

You can just see the wheels-of-delusion turning behind all that blond. If Young is indicted for campaign fraud, then she and the poor, innocent, gullible, misunderstood, incredibly-hot Johnny Reid can live happily-ever-after.

After Elizabeth dies.

That's what I call "living truth". Anybody else wanna bathe yet?

Until today, silence had actually given Rielle more credibility than any of the other players in this mess (including Elizabeth). But that is no more. It went the way of the pants that are missing in the GQ photo-shoot.

The gang was there on the N&O thread, and a good many of them were gagging: "Please stop (covering this tabloid trash)!"

But I disagree. (Insert English accent), "Please sir, we want some MORE." And here's why:

First, we had to sift through Elizabeth's self-serving work of fiction. Then we had (John and) Rielle spending the last month in Court, pulling out all the stops, trying to paint Andrew Young as a liar and a thief. Trying to get Young to swear under Oath that every single tiny thing in his book was the absolute truth was about laying a legal trap. But Young, a lawyer himself, didn't take that bait . . . for reasons I could easily believe.

You see, it's very easy to conceptualize that things got KINDA STUPID on that tour-of-duty-from-hell.

It's quite simple, chickadees. ALL of the maneuvering in civil court . . . and this incredibly-in-bad-taste interview . . . was/is about making Young the scapegoat . . . and discrediting one of the Feds' key witnesses in any future indictments against her beloved "Johnny Reid". It's called legal strategy.

Like a SLAPP suit.

The Edwardian lawyers think We-the-Ordinary-People are all gullible and stupid. After all, a lot of us (let me re-emphasize NOT ME) voted for him.

Moreover, the notion that Johnny Reid Edwards is sooooooo "concerned" about "perjury" now (because it's all about him) . . . when a constituent-victimized-by-it didn't bother him one bit while he was a Senator (just like it's never troubled Candidate Spag) . . . really, Really, REALLY BURNS my tail.

And/so every self-serving ditzoid musing by a scantily-clothed Rielle (let me just say, that was CREEPY!!!) needs to be ON THE RECORD.

The comments are gone at the N&O (Afternoon Update: They're back up). I've filed a help-ticket, but I'm sure I'll get back the standard "terms of service" excuse. And this time that's believable too - because I expect the story was inundated with negative comments from readers who have no use for these two-losers-in-lust.

It's a shame though. I really liked one comment and was going to use it here. It was from a regular commenter/"ordinary" sort on the N&O boards (Afternoon Update: I don't have to paraphrase):

I'm sorry I encouraged my daughter to go to a good college and then into medical school. Now she's working like a dog to make her residency, when all she had to do was get pregnant by some rich guy and she'd have a guaranteed payday for life.

Speaking of we ordinary saps and getting ahead in life (or ANY KIND of justice in this state), there's another story up at the N&O today . . . they're shining a week's worth of "sunshine" on "cronyism" and corruption.

I e-mailed (reporter) Dan Kane, and prodded him that it might be a good time to take a second look at my story (suffering under no illusion that he would). This was his response:

Thanks for writing. There are a lot of these kinds of cases and we can't write about every one. Your case goes back years, and involves a hospital outside our area, so I probably won't take it up.

Hope you are doing well . . .

Now the point kind of is that I could be doing a whole lot better. So I fired off a response:

The fact that it goes back years without a backwards glance from a news reporter doesn't speak very well of our newspapers, does it?

And I'm curious. You say there are "a lot" of these kinds of cases. I've been reading your paper for quite a while now, and I've yet to read about a single story remotely like mine. Could you direct me to one?

But hey, keep all that top-notch, better-late-than-never journalism & uber-up-lifting stories on liars-and-their-kooky-skanks-overcoming-adversity coming.

Late Afternoon Update:

Mr. Kane responded with a couple of e-mails citing (recent) links to stories the N&O has done on whistle-blowers employed by the state. "We've reached the point where we're gonna have to agree to disagree", he says.

We reached that point long ago.

I'm NOT a state employee. I'm a former public servant who worked for a "non-profit". And "non-profits" in this state might as well have a license to KILL. No one cares and no one is doing ANYTHING about it - especially not report on it.

And after a while, because of all of the corruption that your newspaper (and others) couldn't be bothered to cover back when it happened (because back then Sleazely and Edwards and all the rest could do no wrong) . . . and because it's my life that got de-railed . . . the excuses ring very hollow.

Reillity is that cronyism and apathy is not just a problem in state government. And it's the reason the National Enquirer is up for a pulitzer.

As opposed to Dan Kane and the N&O.

Evening Update:

This has been the MOTHER of "I told you so" days for those of us who were charter members of the "I HATE John Edwards" club. The sheer level of utterly shameless skanktitude is still sinking in.

Well, maybe not quite so shameless. Rielle is reportedly upset with the pictures published by GQ (!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!)

Really. It's just so hard not to fall off your chair laughing.

Maybe she misread her stars? That poor, poor baby.

Meanwhile, Newsweek (as opposed to Dan Kane and the N&O) is reporting that Edwards used the "non-profit" Center for Promise & Opportunity to funnel payments to Hunter.

Kinda makes my point (Dan) about "non-profits" getting away with murder in this state . . . BECAUSE NO ONE IS LOOKING OVER THEIR SHOULDER . . . OR REPORTING ON THEIR MISDEEDS.

I Am A Blogging Doctor, Hear Me ROAR (Under My Own Name)!!!

Kevin MD features a most excellent guest post this morning written by Martin Young . . . whose opinion is that doctors should not hesitate to blog under their own names.

It's always been my own theory . . . despite being in the rather unique position of having to take a certain "Stench-who-shall-remain-nameless" to Court for cyber-stalking.

Given my "1-2-3" with "that Smell" (not to mention the bit about being a medical whistle-blower who, at one point, because of the legal bullies, was too terrified to say "BOO!" to a goose in public), I certainly understand why some folks prefer to try and maintain a buffer . . . even if a mere pseudonym really isn't much of one.

While we're on the subject (since several folks have asked), being a lover-of-free-speech, yet at the same time craving some of that civility in the blogosphere that so many of the Googlers & deaf/dumb/blind citizen-journalists in Greensboro lecture about, this private citizen is deeply conflicted about filing a libel claim against our local ether's resident angry-white-man-with-little-reason-to-be-angry. But I gotta say, in this particular instance, it's awfully tempting to slap "Fec" upside his spinning, bile-spewing head with a claim that could not be quickly dismissed on the merits . . . not to mention stomp a Roch.

Young's take on anons mirrors my own (again, given especially the "satire" and the "sources" our "Fec" was, at least at one point, publishing - I have not been back in a long while to see).

As a new blogger, I often look at those replies to my postings that are anonymous and think, “Who are you? Why do you think the way you do? Why will you not put a name and face to your thoughts?” My personal belief is that the anonymous person may lack conviction, confidence or courage. Would they be as brazen or critical if I could research their credentials?

I shared some thoughts on Kevin's thread:

I don’t suppose anyone here remembers Flea?

There are reasons to stay anonymous. But no one is actually truly anonymous on the Internet. I can say that with authority because sometime later this year, I’ll be confronting a cyberstalker in (criminal) Court, and it seems to be a fairly easy thing to do to chase down IP addresses (with a little thing called a warrant).

That, and the Department of Homeland Security likes to visit my blog on a regular basis. It probably has something to do with the less-than-flattering things I’ve said about Obama (and his Mrs.).

I blog under my own name because I came to the ether (five years ago) with the hope that the Internet exposure of what happened to me in my own hometown (twelve years ago) might facilitate some press attention and the righting of some very egregious wrongs (so far that hasn’t happened – it’s fairly clear to me now that I’m gonna have to sue somebody – again).

Instead, I’m watching one more crop of idiot know-it-alls trying to “reform” healthcare in Washington (mostly by giving the government more authority and more to do) without giving a second thought to the mistakes government programs have made in the past . . . or the bodies (like mine) lying in that road.

I am irreverent and quite snarky (just ask Kevin) – and as cynical/skeptical as (if not more so) anyone else blogging anonymously (indeed, on a recent “Grand Rounds”, I believe the word was “acidic”). I drop the occasional four-letter word. I blog about controversial issues like abortion and pedophile doctors and execution.

And NOTHING, I mean NOTHING, makes me happier than to make a blow-hard politician or hospital administrator sweat . . . especially the two overpaid, mill-town hosebags/unconvicted felons who did me wrong.

But using my own name keeps me honest and largely out-of-trouble. I am an independent-contractor, and I do not blog about current assignments or patient situations (somewhat of a restriction) . . . particularly if the institution I work with treats me nice (and the one I currently work with/for . . . that knows about the blogging . . . does;)

Patients and colleagues also know that I blog, and often give me suggestions . . . suggestions that many times I cannot take because they are even more “acidic” than I am.

Nurses, especially, can be pretty spicy;)

Comments here at Housecalls, of course, remain closed. The anon-who-isn't-really has put a bit of a damper on the free speech.

I expect he's very proud of himself.

Update: I don't know what is going on with the comments at Kevin's, but they are being dropped and/or not posted in order. Could be the time change, I suppose.

An anonymous (of course) commenter said this:

Homeland Security doesn’t visit physician blogs, come on. Sounds a wee bit paranoid to me.

I’m not a doctor so I can be anonymous.

I countered:

Not so much paranoid as amused;)

StatCounter does not lie. “Big Sis” IS watching.

In this era of “reform”, the point about leaders vs. followers is well-taken. Ditto for anonymity being any kind of vehicle to facilitate social change (social change being the reason I’m in the ether).

“You might as write graffiti”.

Exactly.