In which of the "Two Americas" does Edwards live? Besides the below examples, he
is in Birmingham tonight at a $1000 to $1200 per plate fundraiser. Well, that's
not exactly true. There is an option for a $10,000 & $12,000 plate.
This cocksucker and his party divide America, live affluently, then try to tell
the poor people that the rich are evil. I really don't understand how some
people are so dumb that they can actually buy the bullshit.
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This is a forwarded message
My Neighbor John Edwards
By W T Nicholson
Written by B. T. Nicholson, a neighbor of John Edwards
I'd like to introduce you to my neighbor. I'm from Raleigh, North Carolina, and
for several years I've lived around the corner from Vice Presidential Candidate John
Edwards. My neighbor John has been in the news a good deal lately, but it's hard to
tell about the man himself from the coverage. Maybe I can help you get to know him
better.
Even several years ago, before he was elevated to the national stage, my neighbor
John didn't socialize much with other neighbors. He didn't gather with other neighbors
at the Fourth of July and he didn't come out to the sledding hills to watch the kids
play after a snow. My neighbor John preferred to jog through the neighborhood by
himself. There's no sidewalk on Allegheny Drive, John's Street in Raleigh, and if you
drove past him as he was jogging on the road and didn't slow down enough for his taste
he'd flip you the bird.
Even after he became a U.S. Senator, he'd still come home to Raleigh every once in
a while, would still jog through the neighborhood, and would still flip the occasional
bird to passing cars. He last showed me his middle finger about four years ago.
Since then, my neighbor John is rarely in town. When he is home, though, we in the
neighborhood all know it. My neighbor John invited reporters from TV, radio, and print
news organizations to come to his house in January 2003 for the announcement of his
Presidential bid. He didn't want any news vans parked on his property -- in fact, he
made sure all the cameras and reporters waited in the street at the bottom of his
driveway. That way everyone could get good footage of him strolling down the driveway
to make his announcement, young children in tow. The news vans drove into the yards of
John's neighbors and parked there. I heard two families ended up re-sodding their
damaged yards, and John never apologized to anyone, much less offered any
compensation. The family across the street from my neighbor John has since put up
posts at their property line to try to keep that sort of thing from happening again.
The appearance was good for my neighbor John. Nobody else seems to matter to him.
Since then, when my neighbor comes home (as he did July 10, to be interviewed with
John Kerry for "60 Minutes"), Raleigh police officers block off the street. Those of
us who live near him end up coming and going to and from our homes on a circuitous
route, on a bad, unsurfaced road. Forsyth Street has been closed to through traffic,
except when my neighbor is in town, because the road has been ripped up for
installation of new gas and sewer lines. My neighbor's street is a public,
city-maintained street, and it is the best way to get to homes just north of his. If
my neighbor is around, though, apparently none of the rest of us can use the street at
all.
It's good for my neighbor John. Nobody else seems to matter to him.
My neighbor John has been a very successful trial lawyer, but his practice of law
sometimes seems more like extortion. A friend of mine is a doctor in Raleigh. He
recently spoke with another doctor, an anesthesiologist, who was named in a suit filed
by my neighbor John. Apparently a surgeon at a local hospital had made a mistake, and
my neighbor John represented the injured patient. Not only did my neighbor John sue
the doctor who made the mistake, but also sued the hospital and a string of others,
including the anesthesiologist. There was no problem with the anesthesia -- the
anesthesiologist had done absolutely nothing wrong. His attorney said so in a meeting
with my neighbor John. John's neighborly response was that he couldn't care less if
the doctor had done nothing wrong. That wasn't the point. The point was that clients
come to my neighbor John because of his record of success and his reputation for
thoroughness. Every defendant in a suit he files! pays, regardless of whether they are
actually guilty or not. My neighbor John demanded a settlement of $250,000, and said
his firm was willing to spend $2 million to get it. The doctor's insurance company
promptly paid the $250,000.
The rate of growth in North Carolina's medical malpractice insurance rates is
among the highest in the nation. The total cost of health care rises with those rates.
My neighbor John's slimy extortion is part of the reason.
Forget about right or wrong, guilt or innocence. My neighbor John did what was
best for himself. Nobody else seemed to matter.
My neighbor John may be a trial lawyer, but in front of juries he also claims to
be something of a psychic. You see, my neighbor John specializes in cases involving
the death or serious injury of children. He claims to receive messages from dead or
brain-damaged children, and the messages are much clearer and more specific than those
received by the famous "psychic" who nearly shares my neighbor's name.
When a child has been killed or is otherwise unable to speak for him or herself,
my neighbor John says he has the ability to "channel" that child. He tells juries he
feels the child inside him, and that he has messages from that child, which he relays
to jury members. He tells juries about the car-accident death of his own son, Wade,
and speculates that he may have received the ability to "feel" the souls of dead or
injured children because of the close relationship he still feels with his son.
It sounds hokey and more than a little creepy, but it seems to play well with
juries, and results in very high jury awards. These awards have made my neighbor
extremely wealthy. He's so wealthy that he created a corporation of which he is the
only member, and pays himself most of his earnings as corporate dividends, not as
salary or wages. Medicare taxes are not levied on dividend income, so my neighbor has
avoided paying $600,000 into the Medicare system since 1995 by setting up this tax
shelter. But he says others aren't paying their fair share of Medicare taxes.
It's good for my neighbor John, and nobody else seems to matter.
My neighbor made a lot of promises on his way to the Senate. He promised strong
support for our military, but then voted against body armor, combat pay, and better
health care for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. He promised to support traditional
North Carolina values, but then voted to the left of Ted Kennedy on partial-birth
abortion, taxes, property rights, and a host of other issues. We in North Carolina
feel betrayed. My neighbor John figuratively gave his constituents the middle finger
while he ingratiated himself to Tom Daschle and the rest of the Democratic Party
leadership.
My neighbor announced many months ago that he would not seek reelection, because
he knows he's unpopular in North Carolina and would lose by a huge margin. According
to a poll released this week, when the Kerry/Edwards ticket was announced, support for
Kerry in North Carolina went down, not up.
We North Carolinians know John Edwards. We've been betrayed by him, and we do not
support him.
But as he broke his promises to us, he gained favor with the Democratic Party
leadership. Now he's a political star. I guess turning his back on the people he
claims to represent has worked out well for my neighbor, John Edwards. Nobody else
seems to matter.
______________________________________________________
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