The Half-Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

So this is interesting! A website that analyzes the contributors to campaigns. Tom Daschle's page shows his number one contributor, giving twice as much as number two by the way, is... wait, the suspense is killing me... T R I A L L A W Y E R S !

Here's a summary page; the Trial Lawyers give over twice as much to Democrats as Republicans.

And Ken Salazar in Colorado has attorneys #2, just barely behind transportation unions.

Want more? Go to overlawyered.com and see where Daschle spoke to the American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA.)

Finally, go see John Thune and Pete Coors and send them some more money. I did and I'm proud of it. Trial lawyers are sending $2000 to all of their candidates, mostly Dems of course but some elephants too. Are you tired of expensive scared healthcare? Pay a little now or a lot later!

Here's a fun story. Seems the Dems have decided to try to scare kids into voting by threatening them with being drafted! This is a painful one for me, I have to say. I would have gone to Vietnam if drafted; it was the right thing to do. But since then we have discovered that a professional military of volunteers is, simply, much better at warcraft than draftees. I have not heard serious talk of a draft from anyone, except a couple of far lefties who floated it to make Iraq less palatable. Draft? What a joke.

But I know an intelligent woman who broke up a long friendship with my wife over this fantasy. She has two late-teenage sons and when she found out that we support the current administration, said "You don't want my sons to keep breathing!" and that was that.

Cheap tactics from a cheap party. When you have nothing of substance to offer, which seems to be the case, attack, lie, cheat, dissemble. It's a sad situation.

John Kerry wrote a book when he came back from Vietnam, called The New Soldier. He has refused to allow it to be reprinted. So what happened? Someone put it up on the Internet. Let's see what kind of guy he is.

A view from England by Mark Steyn.

And another interesting web log about big John.

William F. Buckley always writes beautifully. Read this essay about World War IV, the war against radical islamic fundamentalism.

Here is another interesting link, to the politics behind Fox News. What political party do you think the owner of Fox contributes to? Who did he do a fundraiser for in 2000? The answer may surprise you...

And finally before I get back to work here is an editorial about bias. It brings up the interesting point that the important question may not be liberal vs conservative, but rather the nature and importance of truth and the willingness to address issues directly.

The Mudville Gazette discusses what really happened when Kerry spoke to the VFW, not what the TV says happened. Take a look.

My daughter is reading 1984 for school. This news blackout is scary stuff, as Orwell predicted. It used to be that the news was biased by reporting things, but then slanting them. At least that way you can read between the lines. But what happens if the incident is not even reported? If you're not on-line, how would you know that 200+ men who served around Kerry say he's not fit for command? All you would get is "Kerry is suing someone for some obscure campaign finance thing."

Freedom of the press, like freedom of anything else, comes with responsibility. Thank God for the internet and the web logs (blogs) that are rapidly replacing the stale newspapers and TV network news.

So it looks like Kerry is going to sue the Swift Boat Veterans instead of coming up with a substantive response. Once a lawyer, always a lawyer. Where were his principles when MoveOn.org was putting Bush attack ads on and spending millions of Soros' money? Oh well, what can you expect? We may need to send the swifties some money, too.

Go see the new Swift Boat ad. It interleaves televised statements by the young Kerry with statements from modern vets about how it affected them. Amazing. Of course I don't know what's the truth here, I was in college and didn't get drafted. But I would have gone if I had.

These guys don't look like liars to me, though, and their book is #1 on Amazon.

A group has come up with a Really Dumb Idea: split Colorado's electoral college votes proportionately! That way, a candidate can get either four or five votes from Colorado pretty much no matter what he or she does. It seems to be based on the "democratic" idea that everybody's vote should count, and I guess that sounds emotionally satisfying. However, the unanticipated side effect is that Colorado would become invisible in national elections. Neither Bush nor Kerry would (or should) even consider coming here if we pass this ridiculous proposal because we will have made ourselves irrelevant. Vote against it and keep Colorado important.

To the editor:

Two hundred plus veterans of Vietnam have a best-selling book about a Presidential candidate and are buying ads in several states. They make credible-sounding statements and certainly have earned the right to make them. The Internet news sites are buzzing with stories. Why aren’t you?

Are the right wingers correct? Are you in the hip pocket of the Democratic Party? I used to think reporters hated being duped worse than anything. This is a great story and deserves an ace reporter. You covered the Bush “AWOL” story and the Prisoner Abuse scandal, why not this?

A newspaper that doesn’t report the news is only good for ads, comics, and movie listings. Ads I can do without, comics are available on line, and movies are easier to find on the Internet. Hmm, let me think.

Well, today I did something I have never done before. I contributed my money to political campaigns. I contributed to George W. Bush, John Thune, and Pete Coors. Please join me, soon. Send some of your hard earned money if you think this is important. Hugh Hewitt would be proud of me. By the way, I read his book. I recommend it to you no matter your affiliation; it is to the point, honest, hard hitting, but also kind and charitable.

I'm tired of the guys in the Big Money Party, the Democrats, trying to buy elections. They pushed through "Campaign Finance Reform," and it took only hours for billionaires like George Soros to flaunt the purpose of the law. If campaign finance reform was supposed to "take the big money influence out of politics," why is it OK for one guy to put MILLIONS into defeating a candidate? John Kerry's criticism of the 200 veterans who have gone public to discuss his record (against his 14 or so) saying that they are a Republican attack group sounds pretty funny when you remember the vicious attack ads run by Soros' group. Can you say H Y P O C R I S Y ?

I knew you could.

Where is the Press? There are allegations of lying, exagerating, bizarre behavior in a presidential candidate. He will not hold a press conference. Have reporters become so ideological that they don't mind being played for fools by a candidate who has taken them totally for granted? Do they ever want to have any influence ever again?

We know that a large majority of the staffs of newspapers are Democrats. That's fine, IF they have the integrity to clean up their own party. Allegations that Bush avoided service, was AWOL, etc. flooded the press several months ago, the President released abundant data, and it was all shown to be a big nothing. Bush flew dangerous planes and was available to be called to Vietnam, but just wasn't, and as the war was winding down he eased out of the service. (Has anyone noted that he did just what the young John Kerry wanted, avoided fighting in an "immoral war," didn't go over with all the other bad dudes and commit war crimes?)

And how about the prison abuse scandals? Reporters saturated us with photo after photo of prisoners being degraded. When people were beheaded, though, that got a short couple of days.

So where is the energy to find the truth now?

Press corps, those of us on the right always knew you were biased leftward. You are proving it to everyone else by your incredible inaction.

A new scare report says that medical errors cause 195,000 deaths a year, the sixth leading cause of death in the US. We must need more Edwards-like lawyers, crusading to reform the health care system and make it safer for the little guy.

Actually, the reverse is probably the case. The Institute of Medicine, a think tank, wrote a report in 1999 called To Err is Human where they analyzed the causes of medical error and made recommendations as to how to fix the systems. They strongly recommended protecting error reporting from legal discovery.

Why is this so important? As a doctor, I know that if I make an error and am up-front about it, I take the risk of losing my livelihood and my house. I also know that being human, I will make errors. Sometimes, analysis of groups of errors leads to improved systems that prevent future problems. Examples are the airline industry and anesthesiology, who have revamped systems to reduce accidents.

We doctors know how ineffective the threat of lawsuits is. The incompetent doctor with the great bedside manner cruises through his career with no problems, the technically excellent one with some personality challenges gets nailed. A scared doctor is not a better doctor, although he probably will be a more expensive one.

We desperately need tort reform, not only to prevent bankrupting the health care system but to make it work better. Send money to Thune, Coors, and Bush, even if it's just $50.

Just finished reading Hugh Hewitt's book. I enjoyed it and agreed with most of it. At the same time, I was reading “Going Public with your Faith” by Peel and Larimore. The similarities between the evangelism process and the political conversion process are phenomenal. You might enjoy their book.

They use an agricultural metaphor—prepare the soil, plant, harvest, then multiply. You have to build trusting relationships first in both processes, otherwise why would people listen to you? Then there is the intellectual conversion, and finally an emotional leap of commitment. That emotional leap is probably just as difficult for going from Democrat to Republican as from Atheist to Christian—it requires totally realigning your whole view of yourself, your friends, and the world. Your exhortations to be gentle with people as they make the change compare to Bill and Walt’s encouragement to “not harden the soil” so eventually you or someone else can make the sale.

There is no doubt, doctors are frustrated nationwide. They want to do something. Several approaches have been thought of.

First and most aggressive is to refuse to treat attorneys. Pretty radical, it is an understandable backlash against perceived (or real) persecution. This is basically a boycott. I can't see it working very well because some of our colleagues will step in and treat the guy no matter how bad he is, especially if he is insured.

Next, some doctors are just leaving. Southern Illinois is said to lack virtually all neurosurgical services. Too bad if you get in a car accident there and need an emergency decompression of a subdural, I guess. And here's an article (from a feminist site no less) about problems with women's services. I'm glad I'm past childbearing age...although my daughters aren't...I may have to deliver them myself!

What are the ethics of leaving? Is it OK for a doctor to leave an area of need due to personal risk? Tough question. The fact is, though, it is really happening.

Some doctors have suggested going on strike. This is problematic ethically and because the wonderful antitrust laws, which are supposed to protect the little guy, often prevent two little guys from doing anything together. Doctors are "supposed to be in competition" with each other.

That seems to leave politics. Some states have pretty good tort reforms that continue to resist concerted efforts by attorneys. California and Colorado do OK, for example. But there is an enormous difference in malpractice insurance rates--for example, Florida obstetricians pay almost $250,000, per year, for a million dollars in coverage. South Dakota? $14,000. (oh, by the way, the average physican salary in Obstetrics is about $200,000.)

I think this needs national attention, hence this website. Doctors can lobby until blue in the face, but legislatures that are majority attorneys will just smile. Perhaps, faced with the loss of power, they will start to pay attention. I'm betting that a Senator will have more desire to keep his power than to help his legal comrades.

Another race has come to my attention. It is the Pete Coors vs Ken Salazar race for the open seat vacated by Ben Campbell in Colorado. Coors is a businessman (yes, the beer) and Salazar is an attorney. I suggest supporting Coors; he has a statement on his web site about tort reform and health care. Go there, read it, and if you like what you see do what you should do with John Thune, give them some money. The Trial Lawyers (like John Edwards...) give LOTS of money.

My sources tell me the following senators have opposed tort reform and are up for re-election:
Daschle, Boxer, Mikulski, Leahy, Schumer, and Reid from the donkey side and Spector, Crapo, and Shelby from the elephants.

I'm having some trouble figuring out how to get poll data to see which races are close. Daschle seems like the most vulnerable, since he is in a predominantly Republican state, but it's hard to be certain. I see some polls having him ahead, some close. So he's my top choice for the HVRWC to help unseat.

Help us get some grass roots tort reform moving!

Here is a post that has made the rounds. It supposedly was written by a high school student, but I can't confirm that. Most important, however, is the degree of documentation and discipline in the article. In essence, the author investigates the claims of Mr. Moore's latest campaign ad...er...movie.

Welcome to the Half Vast Right Wing Conspiracy! It comes to you from the Rocky Mountains, where we receive email, Blogs, web news, commentary, and anything else we think might be of interest to you. We're still under construction.

Here are some examples of what we may post here. Some of the Swift Boat Veterans have banded together to complete the record on John Kerry's service. A must see. This is a developing story; in short, they claim that John is not fit for command and they claim to include Democrats AND Republicans in their ranks.

Another good source of information is Hugh Hewitt, a radio talk show that's on in Denver from 4-7 on 710 AM, KNUS.

I've been thinking about the Medical Liability crisis (frankly, it's not just Medical, it's throughout the American system.) A few Senators keep stonewalling anything that gets proposed. Anyway, here's my idea (and feel free to send our address anywhere you like.) How about we pick a few Senate races (just a few, so we concentrate our efforts) and donate to the challenger? For example, John Thune is making a run against Tom Daschle. Tom has been a thorn in our side for years. Go to John's site and donate $20 or $50 or whatever you like. Criteria should be that the Senator has participated in filibusters or voted against tort reform, that he/she is running for re-election, and the race is somewhat close. Any other ideas for candidates? If we can help defeat one or two each cycle, the others may get the idea.

If you're conservative AND Christian, a few words. Hugh Hewitt interviewed Dobson on August 4th, and there are a few excerpts on his Blog site. You must vote. You must consider making monetary contributions to candidates that you believe in. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's" is for dictatorships; here in the US, we are supposed to all be the government.

Good luck and carry on!