STOP The North Carolina Presses!!! Trial Lawyers Are Feeling Left Out!

Well, the Federal government did not shut down.  National Health Service Corps recruits are safe - for now.

Sometimes - especially recently - what passes for headlines from major news outlets makes me want to barf. 

It's bad enough that we have to read (more so that anyone cares) Charlie Sheen is being booed off his stages in the enlightened big cities . . . or that Snookie-the-jersey-Scank merits outrageous speaking fees at our finest universities .. . . but this past week, we got to read that "John Edwards is Suicidal".

Apart from all of the places I could go with that, I can actually empathize just-a-little-bit with North Carolina's favorite ex-trial-lawyer-turned-porn-star . . . since there were some very-dark-days when I felt that way . . .  after the "most accessible Senator from North Carolina ever" (come to think of it, he did give "accessibility" a new meaning) spent his days running for President rather than responding to the needs of his constituents (say, like this one - after I got hosed in one of the very public service programs that he and his equally-clueless wife drooled over).

But earlier this morning, the gag reflex was really kicking in.  Because now, "Trial Lawyers Are Feeling Excluded" as the GOP in Raleigh attempts to draft malpractice tort reform.  If you believe the N&O (and sometimes you can), since Republicans are nothing if not corporate shills, they're doing a lot of the drafting of this law behind closed doors . . . totally ignoring those citizens whose story-of-woe might give the public pause in terms of supporting this bill.

Knowing something of being excluded from the legislative process in order to serve (local) corporate interests, I dropped a comment on the story:

" . . . the lawyers who sue on behalf of injured people are complaining that lawmakers have cut them out of the process and are only listening to corporate interests behind closed doors".

On the one side, I say BOO HOO!!! Now these legal trolls (who, for the last CENTURY have done pretty much anything they wanted under the "watchful eyes" of now-convicted and soon-to-be-indicted Democratic FELONS) know how it feels to be a citizen - particularly a doctor - stomped and ignored under their winking and nodding boots - cut out of ALL the meetings - everywhere - even as medicine was being "reformed".

On the other side, from what I've seen of the bill so far, it's a decidedly BAD mish-mash of currently politically-correct sound-bites - lopped together to make yet another law that's going to be filled with undesirable unintended consequences for those at the highest disadvantage - the people already wronged/injured by medical negligence or corporate malfeasance - the people that the state/its laws are supposed to work hardest to protect.

We need tort reform - no doubt. But in this bill, as I understand it, ED doctors are protected from aggressive legal tactics simply because they work in one section of the hospital. What about OB's and Pediatricians and surgeons and anesthesiologists who attend emergencies in other areas - who show up and deal with the ugliest disasters simply because they're taking call?

The now "suicidal" John Edwards made a fortune suing OB's over "bad babies" - using ify science to sway the emotions of juries. Why do good/fair legal protections for doctors rely only what part of the hospital you work in?

How Constitutional is that?

(Not that the Constitutional rights of doctors ever mattered in this state.)

Where are the legal protections for medical whistle-blowers like me (see the previous reference to the legal trolls above) who've been battered and buried by disinterested/sold-out local DA's and their corporate cabals?

Where are stronger laws against "non-profit" corporations (a dominating force in medicine) who would withhold public records - or monopolize public resources to their own end - or commit bold-faced crimes to get their way?

I also know Harold Brubaker (can't link here, so Google Dr. J's Housecalls and his name) and I can assure you that when it comes to right against might - this guy is LAST in line. I'm still waiting for good old Harold to do right by this public-servant-done-wrong-right-under-his-Republican-nose.

His excuse for not lifting a finger?

Why he had to live in Asheboro!

As I said, still waiting for one of my duly-elected reps in Asheboro/Randolph County - who all know I'm here because they DO read this blog - to invite me to Raleigh for sit-down.

Because I could tell the committees how the lawyers really work.

P.S. (especially for Harold Brubaker):  I don't blog everything I know - or have been told about the "right people" of Asheboro.  This blog is not a gossip column, and I've been very kind/responsible in that regard.  So, "Mista Speaka" you might want to CURB some of the smart-assed remarks to my ex. 

Because one of these days, I might change my mind.  Over the years, you and those-whose-pocketbooks-you-serve have certainly pushed every button.