Fairweather

Jim and his commie brethren want to impose their world on me. They will lie, cheat, and steal to do it. I will resist.

I seems Google is only as productive as the willingness of the user to click on the links. Sorry Crux, no "Huffingtonpost" for your liquid refreshment this time - and this will require far more reading than you're used to... The Hedge Fund: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/10/AR2007051002277.html Legal Career, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edwards Before running for political office, John Edwards was a personal injury trial attorney, specializing in representing people who were alleged victims of corporate negligence and/or medical malpractice. After law school, he clerked for a Federal judge and in 1978 became an associate at the Nashville law firm of Dearborn & Ewing, doing primarily trial work, defending a Nashville bank and other corporate clients. The Edwards family returned to North Carolina in 1981, settling in the capital of Raleigh where he joined the firm of Tharrington, Smith & Hargrove.[12] Edwards' first notable case was a 1984 medical malpractice lawsuit. As a young associate, he got the assignment because it was considered a losing case; the firm had only accepted it as a favor to an attorney and state senator who did not want to keep it. Nevertheless, Edwards won a $3.7 million verdict on behalf of his client, who suffered permanent brain and nerve damage after a doctor prescribed a drug overdose of anti-alcoholism drug Antabuse during alcohol aversion therapy.[13] In other cases, Edwards sued the American Red Cross three times, alleging transmission of AIDS through tainted blood products, resulting in a confidential settlement each time, and defended a North Carolina newspaper against a libel charge.[12] In 1985, Edwards tried a case involving medical malpractice during childbirth, representing a five-year-old child born with cerebral palsy whose doctor did not choose to perform an immediate Caesarian delivery when a fetal monitor showed she was in distress. Edwards won a $6.5 million settlement for his client, but five weeks later, the presiding judge sustained the verdict but overturned the award as being "excessive" and that it appeared "to have been given under the influence of passion and prejudice," adding that in his opinion "the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict." He offered the plaintiffs half of the jury's settlement, but the child's family appealed the case and settled for $4.25 million.[12] Winning this case established the North Carolina precedent of physician and hospital liability for failing to determine if the patient understood risks of a particular procedure.[13] After this trial, Edwards gained national attention as a plaintiff's lawyer. He filed at least 20 similar lawsuits in the years following and achieved verdicts and settlements of more than $60 million for his clients. His fee, as is customary in "contingency" cases, was one-third of the settlement plus expenses. These successful lawsuits were followed by similar ones across the country. When asked about an increase in Caesarean deliveries nationwide, perhaps to avoid similar medical malpractice lawsuits, Edwards said, "The question is, would you rather have cases where that happens instead of having cases where you don't intervene and a child either becomes disabled for life or dies in utero?"[12] In 1993, Edwards began his own firm in Raleigh (now known as Kirby & Holt) with a friend, David Kirby. He became known as the top plaintiffs' attorney in North Carolina.[12] The biggest case of his legal career was a 1997 product liability lawsuit against Sta-Rite, the manufacturer of a defective pool drain cover. The case involved a three-year-old girl[14] who was disemboweled by the suction power of the pool drain pump when she sat on an open pool drain whose protective cover other children at the pool had removed, after the swim club had failed to install the cover properly. Despite 12 prior suits with similar claims, Sta-Rite continued to make and sell drain covers lacking warnings. Sta-Rite protested that an additional warning would have made no difference because the pool owners already knew the importance of keeping the cover secured. In his closing arguments, Edwards spoke to the jury for an hour and a half without referring to notes. It was an emotional appeal that made reference to his son, Wade, who had been killed shortly before testimony began in the trial. Mark Dayton, editor of North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, would later call it "the most impressive legal performance I have ever seen."[15] The jury awarded the family $25 million, the largest personal injury award in North Carolina history. The company settled for the $25 million while the jury was deliberating additional punitive damages, rather than risk losing an appeal. For their part in this case, Edwards and law partner David Kirby earned the Association of Trial Lawyers of America's national award for public service.[13] The family said that they hired Edwards over other attorneys because he alone had offered to accept a smaller percentage as fee unless the settlement was unexpectedly high, while all of the other lawyers they spoke with said they required the full one-third fee. The size of the settlement was unprecedented and Edwards did receive the standard one-third plus expenses fee typical of contingency cases. The family was so impressed with his intelligence and commitment[12] that they volunteered for his Senate campaign the next year. After Edwards won a large verdict against a trucking company whose worker had been involved in a fatal accident, the North Carolina legislature passed a law prohibiting such awards unless the employee's actions had been specifically sanctioned by the company.[12] In December 2003, during his first presidential campaign, Edwards (with John Auchard) published Four Trials, a biographical book focusing on cases from his legal career.

You should try that sometime and see what happens.

Sitting outside the tent in the icy cold drab of the post sunset alpine. The meal just eaten sits like a chilled stone in the pit of the stomach. Another swig of water is forced down. Not out of thirst but obligation. To yourself and your friends who will rely on you soon. Loneliness. The air is noticeably thin now and dread of the impending sleeplessness brings on thoughts of home. Cool sheets and smooth skin. This is so stupid. Being here tonight. Then you remember. Fumble through your pack. The touch of a single point lights up the keypad in a pale blue glow. You take off your thick gloves just long enough to touch a sequence of ten numbers. They are well. She is well. You are well. All is now well. Tomorrow will be a great day on the mountain.

JayB - I think the Cobra rules have recently changed to narrow or close the no risk retro loophole. I might be wrong.

Lower your standards and move down here to Tacoma with the right-thinking people.

Well, KK, here I am still unemployed. My six months of health coverage that was covered by my employer has expired. I will now write a check for COBRA coverage for $1500 each month. I sympathize, Catbird. But I refuse to believe someone with your skills and education is unable to find employment.

Medved.

"My name is Trashtarketena...and I am an alcoholic."

Glad Keith-O is there to show you how and what to think, Dave.

Wasn't that Ted Kennedy's bill too?

This time (assuming she's elected - far from a certainty) she'll attempt to do it hand-in-hand with media restrictions via the "fairness doctrine". If she has her way, this go'round you won't likely see advertisements countering any ongoing health-care socialism "debate".

I have not always controlled my emissions in a responsible manner.

I'm confused. You say "I'm with Winter on this one" - but Winter 's sarcasm indicates he is stridently against corporal punishment in schools. Or maybe I'm just missing your own too-subtle sarcasm?

I don't believe Bush ever ran as a populist champion of the poor.

Threatening the life of the president isn't protected speech. Saying that djumja has a dysfunctional #21 chromosome is.

Yes, but think of how many homeless people he could house on all that freshly logged open space! Funny how Democrat charity always seems to begin with other people's money.

So PM the moderators and have me banned, stool. There is a reason lefties like you can't be trusted with free speech, and you have demonstrated it once again.

Sorry, but I'll take the corporate whores over the nanny/Robin Hood thieves any day.

What is "absinence"? Any comments on the Edwards compound...or Gore's electric bill?

Speaking of moralizing hypocrites, here is a photo of the John Edwards compound. You may know him as a Democrat champion of the poor and the environment: Apparently his wife doesn't get along with the "neighbors". Nice folks.

Threatening people with lawsuits? It's called rhetoric, sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek. I think you have a major stick up your ass, cheesebreath.

Cotopaxi?