JOHN WEAVER IS WRONG ABOUT PALIN

In response the her charges about her handlers, he made these remarks to POLITICO:

Former McCain strategist John Weaver slammed Palin for using the book for “petty and pathetic” score-settling.

“Sarah Palin reminds me of Jimmy Stewart in the movie 'Harvey,' complete with imaginary conversations. All books like these are revisionist and self-serving, by definition,” Weaver wrote in an email to POLITICO. “But the score-settling by someone who wants to be considered a serious national player is petty and pathetic.”

Richard Nixon was "petty and pathetic" but he was also very successful: he managed to be elected and re-elected President. Like Palin, Nixon also harnessed populist resentment against Beltway insiders and liberalism. ( See NIXONLAND, first 100 pages, for some details)

ANDREW SULLIVAN DID US ALL A FAVOR...

when be began keeping trakc of all the lies Sarah Plain told. Now that Caribou's book is out, the AP has done a little fact-checking and found a dozen more lies. Here's my favorite:

PALIN: Says Ronald Reagan faced an even worse recession than the one that appears to be ending now, and "showed us how to get out of one. If you want real job growth, cut capital gains taxes and slay the death tax once and for all."

THE FACTS: The estate tax, which some call the death tax, was not repealed under Reagan and capital gains taxes are lower now than when Reagan was president.

Economists overwhelmingly say the current recession is far worse. The recession Reagan faced lasted for 16 months; this one is in its 23rd month. The recession of the early 1980s did not have a financial meltdown. Unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent, worse than the October 2009 high of 10.2 percent, but the jobless rate is still expected to climb.

LIMBAUGH SEEMS TO BE CHASING BECK & LEVIN

After Pres. Obama told GOP lawmakers that they can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh, I noticed that Fats seemed to take a less angry approach on air. With the success of the Baggers and Beck's 9-12 movement, he now seems to have become just about as shrill and krazy as Levin and Beck.

THE FAULT MAY LIE AT AND NEAR THE TOP

I noted before that the MOTU seem to have a slender grasp of the computer systems that make their thievery possible and this may extend below the top floor to the IT managers. From a reader to Andrew Sullivan:

I worked until very recently at a bank that has a large (> 3000 headcount) IT department. The idea of managers reading every line of code that goes into a release is absurd - in fact, many senior managers who grew up programming mainframes in COBOL are effectively illiterate in the VB, Java and .Net paradigm that's taken over.

CRANKY OLD MAN OR SPOILED BRAT?

I noted before how arrogant Lou Dobbs is and others have noted his many questionable remarks. In his mind, however, he is the victim:

GQ: That was my next question. Have you heard from the administration?

LD: Of course I have. Sure. Without question. They are coordinating with a number of groups, including the Center for American Progress. The usual suspects. To carry out constant and absolutely insidious and sordid attacks on me. And the reason they’re doing so, I’m the leading independent voice, and I am critical on their policies and intent, on unconditional amnesty, and leaving the borders and ports unsecure. They cannot, they’re. . .

OUR WOULD-BE CONSERVATIVE OVERLORDS

I'm referring to all the conservative media stars and other honchos who supported Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 special election. They seem to think that their grandiose plans for conservative rule override any petty local concerns and this amounts to another glaring contradiction in the conservative narrative.

Hoffman, baby, Hoffman!?
Posted: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 10:15 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: 2009
What conservatives just don't get about NY-23's message
FIRST READ - MSNBC

Those who thought a loss for the Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman, was a setback for the conservative movement are probably right, but that's no matter to Palin-ites. They'd argue they only lost because the stodgy Republican establishment didn't embrace Hoffman SOONER.

That's highly arguable, considering Hoffman's lack of knowledge of local issues, his carpetbagger status (he doesn't live in NY-23), and his just overall poor appearance as a candidate. He was always more of an idea. He wouldn't even meet with the Syracuse Post-Standard's editorial board, but who could blame him after his disastrous appearance before the local Watertown Daily Times.

It wrote on Oct. 23rd that Hoffman "showed no grasp of the bread-and-butter issues pertinent to district residents...." He spoke "generally" about national issues, with "no details."

It continued, "A flustered and ill-at-ease Mr. Hoffman objected to the heated questioning, saying he should have been provided a list of questions he might be asked. He was, if he had taken the time to read the Thursday morning Times editorial raising the very same questions."

Regardless of ideology, that is incredible and inexcusable for a candidate.

But that doesn't matter to the Tea Partiers. As the Watertown paper wrote in the same editorial, Tea Party chief Dick Armey "dismissed regional concerns as 'parochial' issues that would not determine the outcome of the election."

ADDITIONS TO THE HARVARD HALL OF SHAME

I noted before that Harvard has educated some of the most prominent wingnuts and I'd like to add two more clowns who spent time at our oldest wingnut hatchery: Jim Cramer and Lou Dobbs.

A LIBERAL ANTHEM

The wingers like Hannity, Limbaugh & Levin love to quote St. Reagan as the One, True Leader and I think it's time for a little reminder of how a truly great leader thinks.

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, Wednesday, January 20, 1937

I THINK PURGING IS A GREAT IDEA

Media Matters reports that Fats Limbaugh is whining about the Obama Administration purging conservatives from the Civil Service and although that's another false claim from Fats, I do think the neo-cons should be shown the door. Digby agrees.

CONSERVATIVES A FRIGGING SOAP OPERA

Carrie Prejean, one of their heroines, turns out to have made a sex tape of herself masturbating, sending it to her then-boyfriend and then can't even handle Larry King. Sarah Palin, another Bagger heroine, is still whining about Creampuff Katie Couric. The Baggers themselves are having a legal spat about who running their comedy show.

Talk about "a tale told by an idiot."

BOTTOMING OUT

Private investment has stopped declining and is starting to increase.




Source: BEA, Table 5.1 Saving and Investment

THE SITCOM PARTY

The chair of the RNC, who happens to be a black male, admits that some white Republicans are scared of him and now the RNC turns out to be providing abortion coverage to its employees. These people are simply unfit to govern.

ANOTHER FAULT LINE?

Charles Johnson (Little Green Footballs) and John Cole (Balloon Juice) have opted out of the Palin/Beck/Bagger wing of conservatism and now Rick Moran (Right Wing Nut House) has joined them. These "defections" may be a more important loss for movement conservatism than NY-23.

LIMBAUGH GOES MARK LEVIN ON A CALLER

(h/t Zachary Pleat at Media Matters)

I've heard Fats go on spoiled brat rants before but never on a caller. That's one of Mark Levin's trademarks and perhaps it's a sign that Fats is starting to lose it. If so, he seems to be proud of it because he highlighted the attack on his front page:


Here are some excerpts from the transcript:

RUSH: I really don't believe you. I am sitting here stunned. I'm smiling, but I'm stunned. You may be the most ignorant person to ever call this program. ... Because you're talking to the wrong guy, you doofus. Sorry. You idiot. He might not understand the word doofus.

DAVE GIBSON MAKES A GOOD POINT ABOUT STUPAK

Writing in AOL's Politics Daily, he thinks that the Stupak-Pitts amendment about abortion reflects the change in American opinion and is evidence that the Democrats are really serious about finding some common ground on this divisive issue.

He then makes this claim:

On health care, in particular, Obama had promised, with increasing conviction and confidence, that any reform package would include "robust" conscience protections for health care workers who did not want to engage in what they considered to be morally objectionable procedures as well as a bar on any federal funding of abortion. Yet as the process ground on, the rhetoric was not matched by black-and-white guarantees in the bills, and pro-life supporters grew nervous.

Section 259 of H.R. 3962 EH (and IH) seems to provide robust protections:

SEC. 259. NONDISCRIMINATION ON ABORTION AND RESPECT FOR RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE.

(a) Nondiscrimination- A Federal agency or program, and any State or local government that receives Federal financial assistance under this Act (or an amendment made by this Act), may not--

(1) subject any individual or institutional health care entity to discrimination; or

(2) require any health plan created or regulated under this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) to subject any individual or institutional health care entity to discrimination,

on the basis that the health care entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.

(b) Definition- In this section, the term `health care entity' includes an individual physician or other health care professional, a hospital, a provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of health care facility, organization, or plan.

(c) Administration- The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services is designated to receive complaints of discrimination based on this section, and coordinate the investigation of such complaints.

I REALLY WANT TO GET THE VIDEO CLIP

The NYT's Media Decoder watched Hannity's show tonight and this is about the best thing I've read in months:

Wednesday night Mr. Hannity admitted that “we screwed up” in using the “incorrect video.” He called it “an inadvertent mistake.”

Mr. Hannity did not address specifically how the mistake came to be made but he said somewhat ruefully: “It pains me to say: Jon Stewart was right.”

As of now, this isn't on Hannity's page on FAUX News.

UPDATE: Here's the clip, courtesy of Media Matters.

SEAN & MICHELE ARE SO BUSTED

A staffer on Jon Stewart's show caught Hannity airing the wrong video footage about the Nov. 5 Bagger/Bachmann DC rally. Parts of the clip were from the much better attended 9-12 DC rally. This story made it to the Yahoo News Blog and other news outlets.


From the Yahoo story:

When contacted by Yahoo! News about the matter, a Fox News spokesperson declined to comment, but added that Hannity will address the issue on his show airing Wednesday night.

WHO IS JUDGE NAPOLITANO TRYING TO FOOL?

(h/t Ellen at FOX News Hounds)

Yeah, I know it's the Baggers but even they can Google. The FAUX News Judge writes that " If the Congress got out of hand, the states would restrain it" but doesn't mention even one instance of this happening. Looking up States' rights, we learn that the Supreme Court restrained the Federal government, not the states.

AN EARLY NEO-CONSERVATIVE

Bill Bennett, Leo Strauss and other neo-conservatives seem to have the same conception of war as Benito Mussolini.

War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it.

KIRK MAY BE ANOTHER SCOZZAFAVA

His lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union is only 55.69. In 2007 it was 40 and in 2008 it was 48. Somebody tell Mark Levin!

WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE?

UPDATE: Mark Kirk is getting support for a Senate run (via TPM):

Republicans have been coalescing around Rep. Mark Kirk, who has succeeded in a Democratic-leaning area of the Chicago suburbs.

Nate Silver looked at Planned Parenthood ratings of members of Congress and led me to wonder why these Republicans haven't been least denounced by the wingers because they are very pro-choice.

IL

U.S. House

10

Mark Kirk

Republican

100

ME

U.S. Senate

Jr

Susan Collins

Republican

93

IL

U.S. House

13

Judy Biggert

Republican

90

PA

U.S. House

15

Charles Dent

Republican

80

IT'S NOT JUST PIGLET MARK LEVIN

Many other male conservative gasbags, like Boortz and Limbaugh, try to demean Speaker Pelosi by mentioning "botox" in connection with her.

DEMOCRATS TRADITIONALLY GET ALMOST ALL OF THE BLACK VOTE

in Presidential elections. Kerry received 88% and Gore received 90%. For Pres. Obama to get 95% is only a little ahead of them. I'm posting this because some wingnut posters on POLITICO still believe Fats Limbaugh's claim that the Black vote for Obama is due to racism.

PRES. OBAMA WINS OVER MANY OF THE WINGNUTS

His speech at Ft. Hood received raves from Ambinder and Goddard and even movement conservatives like Allahpundit at Hot Air and The Anchoress. The fanatics like Macsmind simply refused to grant that Pres. Obama believed what he said.

I DON'T LIKE THIS AT ALL

Newt Gingrich is a pretty clever politician so I'm willing to assume he's on to something by trying to pander to the Fundies (here and here) and this means that the Fundies may become a major electoral force again. This is very bad news because at bottom, they despise Western Civilization.

No longer conservative about his religion
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Washington Post

"There is a secular-left model of reality which cannot tolerate the thought that state control fails, that tyranny is evil and that a liberated human being whose rights come from God is the centerpiece of the human future," he said. In fact, he added later, he felt so strongly about this that "I'm trying to get a poster done. It's going to have a series of Polish crosses that form a cross."

A man in the audience stood up to say that over the past nine months, the Berlin Wall "is being reconstructed right here" by Obama and congressional Democrats. "At the end of four years, is it not likely that a lot more people will be rediscovering God through tyranny?"

"The underlying move toward a secular socialist worldview has been going on now at least since the early '90s," Gingrich answered. "The great Reagan Revolution defeated communists overseas, but it didn't defeat the left here at home."

LIBERALISM, OLD AND NEW?

I noted below that some people object to calling John Stuart Mill a lberal in the modern sense of the word and I provided some evidence that they are wrong. I also wrote about George Herbert Spencer and his harsh social policies but that's only a small part of Spencer's story. In Social Statics¹ 1850), he favored many liberal proposals, such as allowing everyone to the vote:

OF the several conclusions deducible from the law of equal freedom there are few more manifest or more generally agreed to than this, that all members of a community have like claims to political power. If every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man, then each is free to exercise the same authority in legislation as his fellows ; and no individual or class can exercise greater authority than the rest without violating the law.

Evidently, therefore, a purely democratic government is the only one which is morally admissible — is the only one that is not intrinsically criminal. (Page 217)

If, therefore, class-legislation is the inevitable consequence of class-power, there is no escape from the conclusion that the interest of the whole society can be secured, only by giving power into the hands of the whole people. (Page 220)

¹Social statics; or, The conditions essential to human happiness specified, and the first of them developed.
Author: Herbert Spencer
Publisher: New York, A.M. Kelley, 1969.
Notes: Reprint of the 1851 ed.
Description: viii, 476 p. 22 cm.

TALK RADIO GASBAGS: MEGAPHONES FOR WHINERS

Rep. Hoekstra (R-Rubes) has been whining that the intelligence agencies have been unwilling to brief the House Intelligence Committee on the Ft. Hood slaying suspect. He wanted to be briefed last Friday and DNI Blair told him that briefings will occur this week, so Hoekstra starts screaming about "cover-up" and gets time on Hannity's radio show and Beck's.

SLOTS BENNETT JOINS BILLY AND SAVAGE

This morning, he also denounced Gen. Casey and said "get him out of there." He also badly misrepresented what the general said by claiming that Casey is worried that these murders will result in a loss of some of our diversity. Casey was worried not only that diversity may be entirely lost but also that Muslim servicemen may be in danger.

I'D BE HAPPIER IF BILLY CUNNINGHAM

was on the fringe of the conservative movement but he isn't. Last Sunday, he had virulently anti-Muslim author Dave Gaubatz on his show. This is the fellow who wrote Muslim Mafia, a paranoid fantasy about Muslims infiltrating Congress. The real problem is not this nut, it's that he's taken seriously by the GOP:

Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) wrote the foreword to Muslim Mafia, which came out last month. And she is the leader of a group of four House Republicans -- including Myrick, John Shadegg (AZ), Paul Broun (GA), and Trent Franks (AZ) -- pursuing the book's claims of Muslim intern "spying" on Capitol Hill.

Just last week the Denver Post published an op-ed by former congressman Tom Tancredo outlining the supposed revelations in Gaubatz's book.

TRICKY DICK ARMEY

I haev to admit I was impressed by how Dick Armey managed to connect a wingnut lie about the housing bubble to health care reform (via Amanda Terkel at Think Progress):

ARMEY: But now, they [government officials] come along and they say, irrespective of the fact they’ve gone 20, 30, 40 years of their adult life without ever having bought insurance prior to getting a liver inflammation due to their excessive drinking habits or diabetes because they eat like a pig, you must now insure them.

But at what point do we allow the government to order people that you must sell your product to this person or that person, irrespective of any good judgment? We saw what happened in housing when they ordered banks to make loans to people who weren’t qualified. Are we now going to have the same destructive influences in health care because we’re going to order doctors to provide services and so forth?

A PROPHETIC ARGUMENT AGAINST THE FDA

George Herbert Spencer was the great popularizer of Social Darwinism but he was comfortable with eliminationist thinking long before Origin of the Species was published. In this part of his 1850 book Social Statics, he is arguing that the government should NOT interfere with those selling quack medicines:

HAVE WE REACHED "PEAK BAGGER"???

Maybe so. They not only lost in NY-23, they also lost local elections in a solidly conservative area in Ohio. (h/t Jamie at Crooks & Liars)

YES, TIMES CHANGE...

and so do the supposedly eternal laws of God, as I noted before. Until about 1400 AD, child abandonment was condoned by the Catholic Church. From John Boswell's Kindness of Strangers, pp. 172-73:

The institutional church, into whose hands such matters were increasingly entrusted, itself adopted an entirely realistic attitude toward abandonment. No councils or ecclesiastical authorities prohibited it or lent their support to ascetic condemnations of parents who exposed their children, although conciliar legislation of the period does condemn a wide range of other activities relating to sexuality and family life."' On the contrary, canons of the early church concern themselves solely with means to ensure that the children themselves are properly cared for. An African canon from the opening of the fifth century insisted that infants whose baptismal status could not be determined should be baptized, and explains that this is necessary because of the many babies "redeemed" from the barbarians.'" A council of 442 in Vaison (in southern Gaul) seeks to encourage the faithful to pick up expositi without fear of subsequent complications.

[snip]

This ruling, about one-fifth of the council's proceedings, does not attempt to prevent parents from abandoning children: they will suffer no penalty if they reclaim within ten days or do not reclaim at all. Its aim is, like that of Constantine's legislation a century earlier, to preserve the status quo, particularly as a means of encouraging people to pick up and rear abandoned children without fear of unpleasant consequences or of losing the child in whom they invest time and money. That abandonment was a substantial social problem is apparent; the edict was repeated, provision by provision, about a decade later at a council in Arles, in Provence."

IT'S NOW OFFICIAL...

The GOP is home to racist whites and that's from the Chairman of the Republican National Committee:

Steele: Some white GOP 'scared of me'
By ANDY BARR | 11/9/09 5:55 PM EST
POLITICO

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Sunday that he has been in rooms with white Republicans who are “scared” of him.

Responding during a interview to TV One’s Roland Martin, who said that “white Republicans have been scared of black folks,” Steele replied: “You’re absolutely right.”

“I’ve been in the room and they’ve been scared of me,” said Steele, the first African-American RNC chairman. “I’m like, ‘I’m on your side.’”

THIS IS WHY WE LIBERALS GET ANNOYED

It's not just that the reactionary Stupak Amendment passed, it's also that the single-payer option wasn't even given a vote. Why do conservative positions get preferential treatment from Democratic politicians?

RADIO TIDBITS

UPDATE: In the Weekly Standard, William "The Bloody" Kristol joins the attack on Gen. Casey.

Yesterday, Gen. George Casey, the Army Chief of Staff, was on ABC's 'This Week' and said this:

STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the things this does raise, though, is the special challenge paused to all of you by Muslims in the military. There are only about 3,000 Muslims in the military right now, and on the one hand, you want to recruit Muslims. There is a great need for Muslims in the military right now. On the other hand, this is not the first case we've seen of fratricide by someone with a Muslim background in the military. How do you deal with this challenge?

CASEY: Again, I think that's something else we need to be very careful about, and I think the speculation could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers. And what happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here. And it's not just about Muslims. We have a very diverse army. We have a very diverse society. And that gives us all strength. So again, we need to be very careful with that.

Billy Cunningham and Michael Savage were very upset with the highlighted statement and Savage went so far as to call for Gen. Casey's court-martial. On CNN's 'State of the Union,' Gen. Casey also said this:

KING: If you look at the front pages, in the last few days, this is from the "San Antonio Express News," "Iraq vets weren't stunned by spree." Some who knew the suspect doubted his loyalty, stability. What does the Army know about this man in the days and months before this? Because many people say he openly opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are these Internet postings attributed to him saying that a suicide bomber was akin to a soldier diving on a hand grenade to save his comrades.

CASEY: And again, that will be all part of the investigation, and we are encouraging soldiers and leaders who may have information relevant to the information about the suspect to provide that information to the criminal investigation division and to the FBI. But again, that's something -- you know, there's been a lot of speculation going on, and probably the curiosity is a good thing. But we have to be careful. Because we can't jump to conclusions now based on little snippets of information that come out. And frankly, I am worried -- not worried, but I'm concerned that this increased speculation could cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers. And I've asked our Army leaders to be on the lookout for that. It would be a shame -- as great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well.

This reasonable concern wasn't mentioned by either Cunningham or Savage.

THIS IS GREAT

Jon Stewart mocks nutbag Glenn Beck and Saturday Night Live does the same to FAUX News. IF we can get the "wingers are hilariously krazy" meme into the American meme pool, we'll have taken a huge step toward neutralizing the Noise Machine.

I DIDN'T CHERRY-PICK THE VON MISES QUOTE

Near the end of his book SOCIALISM, von Mises re-iterates his position on property and theft:

2 Violence and Authority

The attitude of mind which sees in private property a privilege of the owners is an echo from former periods in the history of property. All property ownership began with appropriation of ownerless things. The history of property passed through a period in which forcible dispossession of the owners was the rule. It is safe to say that the ownership of any piece of ground property can be traced back to seizure by violence.

I WONDER WHAT HAPPENED

The GOP health care reform plan is a bad joke and I'm a little surprised at one omission: there's no requirement for insurance companies to take people with pre-existing conditions. Steve Benen points out that GOP heavyweights, such as Kyl and Boehner, were behind this mandate until a couple of days ago.

THE MEDIA WINGERS ARE LOUSY AT ELECTION PREDICTIONS

(h/t Frank Rich)

On election day last November, I recall the radio gasbags urging the rubes to go vote because a GOP victory was in sight. They were terribly wrong then and haven't gotten much better.

Sean Hannity was pushing the meme that extremist Doug Hoffman was going win big in NY-23¹:

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right, it is election eve all across the country, and here in New York conservatives are preparing to take back the Republican Party. Now all eyes are focused on New York's 23rd District with the departure of liberal Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, has opened the door for conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman to ride a tidal wave of support, all the way to Washington, D.C.

Scozzafava's exit now leaves Hoffman to face Democrat Bill Owens, and Scozzafava was so liberal that she quickly endorsed the Democrat Owens and is reportedly making robocalls on his behalf.

But that is not stopping Hoffman. After racking up endorsements from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, and Fred and Jeri Thompson and many others, the latest Siena polls shows him leading Owens by five points ahead of tomorrow's election.

William "The Bloody" Kristol also thought Hoffman was going to win²:

BILL KRISTOL, EDITOR, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": Well, this is a district that President Obama, candidate Obama carried by five points last year, exactly a year ago.

People forget this is a traditional Republican district. It has been going Democratic. Obama carried it. That's why they made John McHugh the incumbent secretary of the army.

This was an incredibly clever move by Rahm Emanuel to pluck a popular incumbent Republican out of the House and give him enough of an important job in the executive branch, and win this special election and get an extra Democratic Congressman.

Then we have the chaos of the Republican side, Scozzafava has to pull out. She then endorsed the Democrat. The real Republican, Hoffman, is running on the conservative line. And the absentee ballots that have already been cast for Scozzafava won't be counted for Hoffman. Nonetheless, Hoffman is likely to win.

It is really amazing. This is plus five Obama district, chaos on the Republican side, a respectable Democratic nominee, and the Democrat is going to lose, probably.

¹Fox News Network
November 2, 2009 Monday
SHOW: FOX HANNITY 9:00 PM EST
Conservatives Taking the GOP; Interview with Dick Morris
BYLINE: Sean Hannity
GUESTS: Jeri Thompson, Doug Hoffman, Fred Thompson, Dick Morris
SECTION: NEWS; Domestic
LENGTH: 3971 words

²Fox News Network
November 2, 2009 Monday
SHOW: FOX SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRET BAIER 6:40 PM EST
Fox News All-Stars
BYLINE: Charles Krauthammer, Juan Williams, Bill Kristol, Bret Baier
SECTION: NEWS; Domestic
LENGTH: 2534 words

WE NEED MORE THAN AWARD CAPS

The entire malpractice system needs a thorough overhaul because it's NOT serving to improve medical practices. David Leonhardt in the NYT provides a couple of interesting numbers to back up this claim:

After reviewing thousands of patient records, medical researchers have estimated that only 2 to 3 percent of cases of medical negligence lead to a malpractice claim.

Medical errors happen more frequently here than in other rich countries, as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently found.