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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (21915)	12/29/2003 2:03:47 AM
From: D. Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793671

I dated a girl from Virginia Beach years ago, that thought the "toothless, sleeps with sister" thing applied to rural Northerners. Just "the Other" thinking towards impoverished, relatively isolated areas, IMHO. Friends of my parents live in the area of West Virginia that Deliverance was filmed. It's poor, but no poorer or more ignorant and backward than Shamokin or Shenandoah or any other old coal town hanging on the side of the hills in Pennsylvania. That's just Appalachia. Derek

To: Ilaine who wrote (21915)	1/2/2004 3:28:21 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793671

He admitted Libya's guilt for the downing of Pan Am 103, but made clear that it was originally an Iranian retaliatory terrorist attack for the downing by the U.S. Navy of a peaceful Iran Air Airbus on its daily run across the Strait of Hormuz. "Nobody in our part of the world believed the U.S. government when it said it was an accidental occurrence. So the Iranians subcontracted part of the job to a Syrian intelligence service, which, in turn, asked the Libyan Mukhabarat to handle part of the assignment," Col. Gadhafi explained. The Washington Times Gadhafi's secret message By Arnaud de Borchgrave Arnaud de Borchgrave is editor at large of The Washington Times and of United Press International. It was a remarkable journey for the 27-year-old coup-maker, born in 1942 to a Bedouin herdsman in an insignificant tribe. Inspired by the late great Pan Arab demagogue Gamal Abdel Nasser, army Capt. Moammar Gadhafi, a communications specialist, waited for the boss, King Idriss, to be on a Mediterranean cruise, to take over oil-rich Libya and abolish the monarchy. Exactly one month after assuming power Sept. 1, 1969, the newly promoted colonel, a rank he has held ever since, Moammar Gadhafi ordered all Latin script removed from the country within one month. Only Arabic would be allowed. On Oct. 1, a major wielding a large pair of scissors entered the Uaddan hotel dining room, where this reporter was respecting the 8 p.m. curfew with other diners. Napkins were abruptly snatched from one's lap and dutifully cut in half by the major. The half that had the hotel's name in Arabic was returned. In those early days, Col. Gadhafi tested the country's medical services by disguising himself as a beggar and then going to a hospital after midnight to ask for emergency services. The beggar was told to go away and come back in the morning. Next day, Col. Gadhafi ordered the hospital closed. Nasser died the following year and his would-be successor began diverting the country's oil wealth into troublemaking endeavors throughout the world. Over the next 20 years, through the end of the Cold War, Col. Gadhafi interfered with a lethal mix of lavishly funded terrorism, subversion and overt military aggression in the internal affairs of no less than 42 countries. The late president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, once called him "100 percent mad." Mad he may be, but certainly not crazy. Libya became a privileged sanctuary for all manner of international terrorist groups. He also turned Libya into a de facto member of the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact. Col. Gadhafi wasted billions of dollars on Soviet tanks and Scuds that proved useless due to a lack of qualified personnel. On Independence Day, the tanks he paraded were down to a one-man crew --the driver who zigzagged across the white line he was supposed to follow. Col. Gadhafi's first major reality check was the retaliatory bombing of Libya ordered by President Reagan in 1986 for Libya's earlier bombing of a Berlin disco that killed two U.S. servicemen. The colonel's 3-year-old daughter was killed in the U.S. raid that had clearly targeted Col. Gadhafi himself, and the terrorist downing of Pan Am 103, killing 270, was presumably the colonel's idea of tit for tat. The collapse of the Soviet Union and America's total victory in the Cold War finally gave the colonel pause for thought. That was the seminal event that finally persuaded him to graduate out of the ranks of rogue states and work his way back to diplomatic respectability. U.N. sanctions --particularly U.S. sanctions --were biting hard and Libya was totally isolated by air. The only access was by road from Tunisia and by sea from Malta. The clean breast Col. Gadhafi recently made of Libya's secret weapons of mass destruction projects clearly followed the defeat without a fight of his hero Saddam Hussein. He told this reporter once that his favorite shortwave radio station was Baghdad. When asked why, he said, "I get better foreign policy advice listening to them than to my own advisers." By 1993, wiser counsels had prevailed. On July 6, after a lengthy interview, he went off the record and asked me to deliver a message to the director of Central Intelligence in Washington. He admitted Libya's guilt for the downing of Pan Am 103, but made clear that it was originally an Iranian retaliatory terrorist attack for the downing by the U.S. Navy of a peaceful Iran Air Airbus on its daily run across the Strait of Hormuz. "Nobody in our part of the world believed the U.S. government when it said it was an accidental occurrence. So the Iranians subcontracted part of the job to a Syrian intelligence service, which, in turn, asked the Libyan Mukhabarat to handle part of the assignment," Col. Gadhafi explained. "That is the way these things were planned in those days. If we had initiated the plot, we would have made sure the accusing finger was pointed in the other direction and we would have picked Cyprus, not Malta, where some of the organization was done. The others picked Malta presumably to frame us." Col. Gadhafi then said he was anxious to work directly with the CIA against Islamist terrorists "who are just as much of a danger to us as they are to you." He said he was prepared to give the CIA valuable information for fighting transnational terrorist groups, like al Qaeda, but not those that are "national liberation movements fighting Israeli colonialism." Al Qaeda has a Libyan branch known as "Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)." Since the end of the Cold War, Col. Gadhafi added, "international terrorist organizations concluded America was now the main enemy" and instructed operatives to immigrate to the United States and become sleeper agents as successful American citizens to be activated a few years down the road. "Much of the world," the colonel said then, "does not see America as a shining example to follow, but a frightening mixture of drugs, pornography, unemployed, prisons overflowing with young blacks, rapes and murders. That's what your television shows us. There are people everywhere who see that your capitalism encourages everyone to consume more and more, buy more cars, more TV sets, more of everything that most of the world cannot afford." Since that talk in 1993, but especially since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. of September 11, 2001, Col. Gadhafi has gradually proved his worth to the CIA. That relationship eventually led to full disclosure of all of Libya's development programs for weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein's meek surrender was the tipping point. Col. Gadhafi also knows that what the Bush administration did in Afghanistan and in Iraq could be done in Libya --only faster.

To: Ilaine who wrote (21915)	1/5/2004 6:22:14 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793671

One thing that should come out of a Republican victory in the next election is more of this type of action at the Federal level. I would love to see the Brit system of "Loser pay." Fat chance. LEGAL COSTS Lawyers' fees come under fire Opponents of the current system are attempting to rein in attorneys' contingency fees in Florida and at least 13 other states. BY PATRICK DANNER pdanner@herald.com Critics seek to curb huge contingency fees In Massachusetts, lawyers want a $2.1 billion paycheck for winning an $8.3 billion tobacco settlement. They argue that the $775 million they received was too little. In a similar tobacco settlement in Florida, lawyers won a massive $3.4 billion payment for a $13.6 billion payout to the state. Gov. Jeb Bush called the fee amount ``obscene.'' Guidelines prescribe that such payments, called contingency fees, should be reasonable. But how much is reasonable? Opponents of the current system are attempting to rein in attorneys' contingency fees in Florida and at least 13 other states. The critics contend that contingency fees lead to overpaid lawyers, who can get thousands of dollars per hour in some cases. ''Law is supposed to serve people, not lawyers,'' says Nancy Udell, general counsel of Common Good, a Washington group that wants to limit contingency fees in cases that haven't progressed far in the legal process. ``The rules about reasonable fees based on time expended and risk undertaken have almost universally been disregarded.'' Trial lawyers counter that contingency fees -- called contingent fees by the legal profession -- are the ''poor man's key to the courthouse.'' Without the fees, most people wouldn't have the assets to take on deep-pocket corporations, they say. ''It levels the playing field,'' says Neal Roth, a Miami lawyer and a past president of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers. Under a contingency-fee agreement, a lawyer is only compensated if the client succeeds in recovering money damages. Lawyers run the risk of not being paid if they lose. Therefore, the attorneys working on a contingency-fee basis generally receive a larger percentage of the settlement or verdict. That can range anywhere from 25 percent to as much as 50 percent, depending on whether the case is settled, goes to trial or is appealed. Contingency fees are common in class-action suits and personal-injury cases. The American Bar Association says charging a contingency fee ``does not violate ethical standards as long as the fee is appropriate in the circumstances and reasonable in amount.'' Just what is reasonable depends on the time and labor required, the difficulty of the case, the risk involved and the results obtained, among other factors. Recent proposals to cap contingency fees led the ABA's Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section to create a task force to review and evaluate the fees. The 11-member task force is chaired by Steven B. Lesser of Hollywood's Becker & Poliakoff. ''We're all looking to get the facts out in the open, to find out if contingent fees are really out of control and whether there is a need for some regulation and why,'' Lesser explains. The task force includes well-versed lawyers on both sides of the subject of contingency fees. Besides trial lawyers and academics, there are attorneys representing insurance and tobacco companies. There's even a lawyer for McDonald's Corp., involved in one of the most notorious personal-injury cases, when a New Mexico woman spilled hot coffee on herself. She was awarded $2.9 million in 1994, which was reduced on appeal to $480,000. The sides later settled out of court. A SCHOLARLY GOAL The task force will study data compiled from court cases, state supreme court rulings, media reports and public hearings. It will prepare a report by the end of this year, Lesser says. ''The goal is to have a scholarly, well-reasoned piece of work that can be used by legislators, decision makers and the public,'' says Edward Blumberg, the other member of the task force from South Florida and a partner with Miami's Deutsch & Blumberg. Lesser says Common Good's steps to cap contingency fees in 13 states prompted the task force's formation. Common Good's legal petitions seek to limit the amount lawyers can charge in personal-injury cases where the victim accepts an ''early offer'' settlement. Common Good's Udell says the group generally believes contingency fees are warranted. However, it doesn't believe lawyers deserve a contingency fee of 25 to 40 percent when a case is settled early on. The bipartisan group argues that its proposal would lead to more settlement proceeds going to the victims, create more incentive to settle and reduce court congestion. As an example, Udell says someone she knows slipped on a patch of ice on the property of a business and sought to have the company pay for unpaid medical bills. Unable to reach a settlement, he hired a lawyer. ''The lawyer literally wrote two letters and took a third'' of the settlement, she says. ``We think taking a third, where there's no question of liability and very little work done, is unethical.'' Under Common Good's plan, a lawyer would collect a fee not to exceed 10 percent of a settlement reached within the first 60 days of the dispute. Already, state supreme courts in Alabama and Arizona have rejected Common Good's proposals, says Robert Peck, a Washington lawyer opposed to the petitions. ''I think these are a naked attempt to try to prevent people from bringing cases,'' Peck says. He adds that Common Good's proposal was rejected by the ABA when it reworked its ethical rules in 1999. Common Good didn't float its proposal in Florida, but Udell believes it would be received favorably here. Others aren't so sure. ''No bipartisan group would advance such drastic limitations on contingency fees that would make it impossible for the average person to retain good lawyers to do battle with the healthcare industry and corporate America,'' says Roth, the Miami trial lawyer. Leonard Light says he's also opposed to limiting contingency fees. Light's wife, Joan, was among the plaintiffs who reached a $100 million settlement with a funeral-home operator over the mishandling or desecration of graves at two South Florida cemeteries. ''I think there would be a whole lot of people who would not go to lawyers if there were not contingency fees,'' Light says. NO QUALMS Light adds that he has no qualms about the $25 million that the lawyers reportedly stand to make in the case. The court has to approve the fees. ''I feel they put in the time and they [took] the risk,'' he says. ``We really didn't have a risk monetarily. So they should be paid.'' Florida may soon be a battleground for contingency fees. The Florida Medical Association is backing a constitutional amendment addressing contingency fees solely in medical-liability cases. And Citizens for a Fair Share, a political-action committee, is collecting signatures to get the measure on the November ballot. Under the doctors' proposed amendment, lawyers would receive 30 percent, or $75,000, of the first $250,000 awarded and 10 percent of anything above that amount plus lawsuit costs. ''We just want to make sure the patient gets the money,'' says Dr. Rick Lentz, the association's president. ``I think the public realizes $75,000 is a lot of money.'' Roth doesn't buy that argument. ''It's all done in subterfuge,'' Roth says. 'They don't give a damn about the people they kill and maim. It has everything to do with stopping the filing of lawsuits. It has nothing to do with the victims' receiving more money.'' NEW LIMITS The measure follows a new state law that limits doctors' liability for noneconomic damages in most medical-malpractice cases to $500,000. A medical facility's liability will be limited to $750,000 in most cases. A supporter of tort reform, Associated Industries of Florida, which calls itself the voice of business in the state, isn't backing the constitutional amendment, however. 'First and foremost, we don't think the Constitution is the appropriate place to have any provision that fixes attorneys' fees or doctors' fees or anybody else's fees,'' says Art Simon, Associated Industries' senior vice president for governmental affairs. Simon adds that guidelines on contingency fees adopted by the Florida Supreme Court already are among the most restrictive in the country. The fee schedule is on a sliding scale, with percentages varying by the size of the award. For example, in cases where a lawsuit is settled early on, the lawyer receives a third of the recovery up to $1 million. That drops to 30 percent between $1 million and $2 million. Above $2 million, the fee drops to 20 percent. ''Florida is way advanced,'' Blumberg says. miami.com