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The obsession Republicans have with lawsuits and the amount of money someone should receive if they win a case is very perplexing and disingenuous to me. I mean, they are the first people to use lawyers and sue you, like Fox News did to Al Franken over a book. But during the Obama health-care summit, I heard more garbage about "tort reform" from the Republicans as if it will cure our ailing health-care system. (Sen. Dick Durbin dispelled that myth perfectly, by the way.)

But that was just a drop in the bucket compared to the garbage we get served up on a daily basis from the media elite pundits who take to our airwaves and say the most insipid things to defend their positions. Fox News' Megyn Kelly earlier this week gave probably the most ludicrous argument against trial lawyers and for tort reform than anyone I've ever seen. She sacrificed her arm for the cause. For some reason, if malpractice cases disappeared, suddenly health care premiums would majestically be reduced.

Kelly was discussing tort reform with Debbie Wassermann-Schultz and dove into the twilight zone by arguing that if her arm was cut off, it really wasn't worth all that much as long as you can still function. And what the hell? It's only an arm. I mean how much of an impact does it have on your life if you lose one arm, because you have a back up, right?

Kelly: this is a CNN poll and thy ask people about tort reform and 66% of those asked said they favor limiting the amount of money patients can get if they win a medical malpractice lawsuit. 66 % want that. 33 % don't want that. Why can't there be an agreement on tort reform?

Schultz: They support that until it's them or their family member that is injured in a medical malpractice suit and then the poll numbers change.

Kelly: You just have to limit the economic damage, in other words you, if a doctor cuts my arm off. I can get the money back from what my life is to live like without this arm so I can function. You can't get punitive damages.

WTF? How does a person figure out how much one of my limbs is worth? And then I'm not allowed to get punitive damages because I don't deserve it? Are you confused?

You know, if some moron of a doctor cut off my arm through incompetence, not only would I want to get enough money to make my life whole, I would want to make sure the doctor paid a price too, just to try to assure it didn't happen to anyone else. It might not put him out of business, but it would take a piece out of his hide that he would never forget.

Maybe we should have Kelly draw up a diagram of a body and then monetize each part as it relates to how a person functions. She could then pass it on to Michael Steele, Sarah Palin and the teabaggers, because I'm sure they would argue that one foot is only worth about thirty three hundred dollars and sixteen cents.

Why would anyone care if I won $10 million dollars from a f*&king doctor if he cut my leg off and I sued his ass because he was supposed to only drain a little fluid out of my knee? This is the kind of crap Republicans argue for on Fox News every day, and conservative pundits on all the channels spew regularly. They really are ethically bankrupt.



Preventing Political Malpractice

Health care costs are exploding. A robust public option would create competition that would lower costs, and increase access to life-saving medicine.

But wait! I have an idea! Let's eliminate the public option, and for good measure, take away the rights of the victims of medical malpractice by passing "tort reform." Even though, it um, doesn't work. You know, if by work, you mean lower health-care costs and do anything to help regular people afford health insurance.

But if you've been trained by "Permanent Majority" Rove, and your real purpose is to 1) Keep your corporate slop-providers happy 2) Punish a group that often gives donations to Democrats (lawyers) and 3) Pretend you actually care a whit about people who don't get Yacht Shoe Weekly, then bingo! You have your made up issue.

Thankfully, the American Association for Justice has begun a campaign to tell the truth about this issue, about the 98,000 people who lose their lives each year due to preventable medical error:

The American Association for Justice announced today it is launching what it called the first phase of a nationwide ad campaign "to educate lawmakers about the epidemic of preventable medical errors and how tort law changes won't lower costs or cover the uninsured."

The ads, running in Washington publications and on online news sites, say the estimated 98,000 deaths from preventable medical errors is "like two 737s crashing every day for a whole year."

But the ad concludes:"Would we blame the passengers or the airlines?"

Well, we know who Republicans and Blue Dogs would blame. The passengers. The pilots. The unions. Gay Marriage. Stem-cell research. But never the big corporations who make the planes.

Thankfully, we know better.

Disclosure: I'm damn spankin' proud to be working with the American Association for Justice to protect patients' rights.



Mike's Blog Round Up

Union of Concened Scientists: Animation scientifically explaining the lunacy of nuking Iran

A la Gauche: Harry Taylor is straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

Greg Palast: Why Rumsfeld should NOT resign...and Alex contemplates the The Rumsfeld Doctrine

Copeland Institute for Lower Learning:Edward has his own roundup...

Talk To Action: Christian Coalition of Alabama attacks trial lawyers...and tells a Whopper!

Off the Beaten Path: Speak Speak News...Vox Verax...The War In Context...RuminateThis



AARP speaks out against USA NEXT

David Certner spoke briefly to Judy Woodruff about the smear campaign from USA NEXT

Video

Certner: This shows you the absurdity of the debate. Someone would try to take a social security debate and somehow try and bring in the military, and homosexuality...

We've been waiting for AARP to come out and say something in it's own defense against the slander that USA NEXT is putting out.

Dave Johnson has more on USA NEXT

I did some digging and found a few things to add:

The report says that Texans for Lawsuit Reform, an industry front-group working for "tort reform," is a funder of USA Next. Well, here's a name you'll recognize: Enron's Ken Lay helped start and fund Texans for Lawsuit Reform! See the following, which is footnote 47 from my report The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law:

I also found this about W. H. Regnery, former Boardmember:

W.H. Regnery Sr., patriarch of the nation's premier conservative pubishing house, was one of the principal financiers of the America First movement which advocated an isolationist policy prior to WWII and part of a group that founded the National Review in 1944.



Video clip of the Day

Countdown w/Keith Olbermann with new info on the Bill O'Reilly case

O'Reilly at the Height of Hypocrisy.

Bill O'Reilly who can't go a day without attacking some judge, is now in front of one begging the judge to allow him to be able to fire Andrea Makris from his TV program in lieu of the lawsuit, and also be able to fire her attorney. It kind of reminds me of the way President Bush complains about trial lawyers, after of course he used them to steal the last election.

Watch Here

Listen to the new "The Politnix" song "Shut Up!" an ode to Bill O'Reilly.

Go to Topicalrock.com to buy "The Politnix" music.



I thought he was going to fight this to the bitter end? "There comes a time when you have to take a stand!"

Some stand!

O'Reilly's big mouth blew this story wide open anyway, because Mackris didn't want to go public in the first place. He wanted to intimidate Andrea Mackris and her lawyer and in doing so, probably paid more than he had to. He thought if he made a pre-emptive lawsuit, they would wilt. Guess again.

Also, any mention about trial lawyers corrupting America by any republican hack should be thoroughly flogged. Didn't Bush use trial lawyers to steal the 2000 election? Didn't O'Reilly use a trial lawyer to save his bacon?

What a big Bill!

Paying millions in sex-harassment case
BY DEREK ROSE, GEORGE RUSH and NANCY DILLON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Bill O'Reilly

Sources told the Daily News that O'Reilly will have to pay Andrea Mackris at least $2 million - and possibly as much as $10 million.

Under the deal, Mackris will drop the sexual harassment suit she filed against the talk-show host and Fox.

O'Reilly and his Fox bosses, in turn, will forget about the extortion suit they filed against Mackris and her lawyer.