Big Oil and My New Favorite Latin Phrase

A friend of mine is fond of telling this story about his grandfather. His grandfather nearly became rich in a generational manner. An associate of his approached him with an investment opportunity in a company that made something revolutionary for its time: radios for automobiles. My buddy's grandfather declined and it was too bad because that company is called Motorola.

General Electric was started by famed inventor Thomas Edison to help him sell his new invention the light bulb.

The reason that I bring up each of these companies is that both are still around and thriving today and neither relies in any way on their original products. Motorola sells products that were figments in the imaginations of science fiction writers at the time. GE has turned into a conglomerate that sells just about everything. (They even have delved into mortgages, my business, through their subsidiary, WMC Mortgage)

I bring all of this up because several other companies were also around when these were selling their original products: companies like Amoco, Exxon, and Phillips. Most of the oil companies today were around were created when Standard Oil was broken up. Standard Oil (started by famed entrepeneur John D. Rockefeller pictured below) was broken up under the Sherman Anti Trust Act.

Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal".[2] The Act also provides: "Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations...

In other words, the Sherman Anti Trust Act was created to make sure no one company acted as a monopoly and used their sheer size to stymie competition. (Its last most public use was in the break of AT&T) What about when a group of companies acts no different than one and use their own size to stymie competition? This is a question that I asked when I first started blogging at the famed conservative blogging site, Redstate. If you click the link you will see I was also met with a great deal of resistence by my conservative colleagues.

The question continues to linger in my mind many months later. I have never believed that gasoline acts anything like any market that I know of. For instance, the bedrock of any legitimate market is its insistence that every company in it evolve. The reason that companies like Motorola and GE have not only survived for a century and more is their ability to adapt to their changing market. That is what markets do. Take any company that has been around longer than a few years and you will find one that looks nothing like it did originally. From Microsoft, to Ford, to Walmart, these companies have evolved as the market around them has forced them to. After all, did Henry Ford ever imagine a hybrid, an SUV, or any of the current automobiles when he created Ford?

That never seems to happen to big oil. They continue to sell one product, the same product, in pretty much the exact same type: unleaded. There is frankly not a dime's worth of difference between big oil today and big oil in the aftermath of the Standard Oil break up. I believe this has to do with the make up of the "market": an oligopoly (or as some of you know it a Cartel).

I believe the proof lies in the Latin phrase: Res Ipsa Loquitur (the facts speak for themselves). If big oil is competing in a market, why has their product line stayed stagnant for so long? Why has their market not had to adapt? Let me tell you how I would see oil adapting in a real market. Right now, when you drove to your local ENERGY STATION, you would get a menu of FUELS. This menu could be customized to fit the specific needs of your car. A sports car would get the proper FUEL for that car, and the minivan would get the proper FUEL for that car. In the corner of the FUEL station, there would be an electric stand. There, an electric car could get juiced up.

Does anyone wonder why alternative fuels haven't taken off in automobiles? Think about this. There are right now automobiles that can be powered by alternative fuels. They aren't popular because there is nowhere to fuel them. For instance, if you were to buy an automobile that runs on hydrogen, you would need to go to a government sponsored hydrogen fuel station. There are about one hundredth as many of those as there are regular gas stations.

Why isn't there a hydrogen fuel tank in some of these gasoline stations? After all, given that each of the big oil companies clears at least ten billion dollars in PROFITS every year, they can certainly afford the research and development to put them into at least a few of their stations. They don't. The only sort of alternative fuel tank that they are willing to put in is E85 fuel tanks. That runs on ethanol and ethanol has recently been frowned on as a serious alternative energy source. Hydrogen, on the other hand, is run on water which is quite plentiful.

So, why don't we see hydrogen fuel tanks in gasoline stations the way we sometimes see E85 fuel tanks? I think the answer lies in the same reason that companies can make billions per year peddling the exact same product they were also peddling almost one hundred years ago. They aren't competing in any market. They never have, and they will do everything they can to keep their arrangement the exact same it always has.

Like I said...Res Ipsa Loquitur...The facts speak for themselves. These companies have billions they could spend on R & D. My vision could be a reality in years if not months if they wanted it to be. The fact that it isn't speaks for itself.

CNN and My New Favorite Latin Phrase

I received an email from the conservative blog, Redstate, entitled "Heads need to roll at CNN". Here is the article that Redstate linked to in the email.

Our own Dan Spencer made USA Today today in an article by Jill Thompson.Only
if you check our front page, we don't have a contributor named Dan Spencer; well, we do, but he does not write under his name. You actually have to dig around on the web to find out Dan's real name. Good for USA Today for being competent.

Contrast that with CNN last night. Not only did they allow Keith Kerr's question, they invited him to the debate. Had they bothered to research, they would have discovered his connection to Hillary Clinton's campaign. He's a member of the LGBT Americans for Hillary Steering Committee and co-chair on Hillary's National Military Veterans group. He also was an active John Kerry supporter in 2004.

And last night Anderson Cooper willingly gave Mr. Kerr the Democratic activist a soapbox. Anderson has yet to apologize for either his willing participation or incompetent handling of the situation and failure to research.

The fallout from this story continues. Michelle Malkin reports today that the muslim girl that claimed that our reputation in the Muslim world has suffered as a result of the invasion of Iraq was a previous intern at CAIR. The number of non Republican questioners continues to grow each day.

For anyone not following, during Wednesday's Youtube debate hosted by CNN, several questioners turned out not to be Republicans or Independents, but in fact supporters of Democratic candidates. The most infamous was the gay general that scolded the candidates for not believing the military wasn't professional enough to serve with openly gay officers. His situation was even more peculiar because he was in the live audience and he spoke after the candidates answered his video question.

What is most embarrassing for CNN is that bloggers discovered most of the malfeasance in nearly real time. If the story is accurate, Anderson Cooper was told by Bill Bennett during the debate that bloggers had discovered the error.

To me, it really matters not whether or not CNN knew ahead of time that these questioners weren't Republicans. There are only three possible scenarios as far as this situation is concerned vis a vis CNN. They were either corrupt, incompetent, or even both...res ipsa loquitur. None of those scenarios shines anything but a terrible light on CNN. A couple months back CNN took a terrible ratings hit when when they tried to create controversy where none existed when they claimed that comments that Bill O'Reilly made about a Harlem restaurant were racist. They had a special about Iraqi insurgent snipers that many called nothing short of a snuff film. They even admitted soft balling the Hussein regime for years in order to gain access.

Suffice to say, their reputation doesn't need anymore hits. The simple fact of the matter is that heads absolutely need to roll on this and plenty of them. If we don't see heads roll, they will perpetuate the perception that this creates that they have a liberal bias. To me there is nothing to think about here. It isn't as though someone was late for a meeting or spent too much time on personal phone call one day. Several people, who weren't supposed to be asking questions at a major Presidential debate, were allowed to ask questions. Anyone who was responsible for vetting the questions and their superiors hve to be fired. There are no second chances for embarrassing the network on live television. If bloggers can figure these things out, then paid staffers have to or be removed. Like I said Res Ipsa Loquitur.

The other part of this story is the near blackout of its coverage by the rest of the media. I couldn't find anything on MSNBC. I couldn't find anything in the New York Times, There was something in the Washington Post though it is on conservative blogger's Ramesh Ponnuru's blog...not exactly top billing. I also found nothing in the Boston Globe. I could probably do this with most MSM newspapers and networks and if I had the time I would. I think you all get the idea. Most newspapers and networks have stayed relatively away from this story.

The New York Times for instance had a negative story about Iraq, Rudy Giuliani, and a story about the teacher in Sudan, on the front page. I won't say those aren't important, however a major network allowing multiple people to slip by their radar in a live debate is just as important. For their to be a near blackout of this story in the MSM...well that goes by the same Latin phrase, Res Ipsa Loquitur.

What Does the Administration at Emory Get Paid For? (UPDATED)

Introduction: Yesterday, I published this piece. It is a detailed summary of the continued and growing scandal going on at Grady Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. If you are unfamiliar with the details I suggest that you check out link.

Also, I have a stat counter on my site. It allows me to track in detail who, identified by IP address, comes, where from, which of my pieces they read, and all sorts of other details that turns it into Proprietor Nation's version of big brother.

The following piece is in regards to the aftermath of that piece (which received a fair amount of traffic) and one specific IP address that I have been able to identify. So, without further adieu...



I am not sure however if today is like other days then they are paid to surf the web. I know this because IP address, 170.140.62.42 (administration's IP address, probably this man) has been on my site for hours today. In fact, this IP address is by far my biggest fan. I know this because they check with me usually at least once a day, however today they have taken an unusually large interest. (I wish they would click to Amazon once in a while and buy one of their fabulous books though) Here is a run down of today's activities...




28th November 2007
09:16:51
No referring linkProprietor Nation
29th November 2007
11:01:22
No referring linkProprietor Nation
29th November 2007
12:52:22
No referring linkProprietor Nation
29th November 2007
12:52:29
proprietornation.blogspot.com/Proprietor Nation: An Updated Summary on the Fiasco at Emory, Grady, and Beyond
29th November 2007
13:04:31
No referring linkProprietor Nation
29th November 2007
13:04:34
proprietornation.blogspot.com/Proprietor Nation: A Murder, A Suicide: Connecting More Dots in the Culture of Corruption
29th November 2007
13:04:35
No referring linkProprietor Nation
29th November 2007
13:04:45
proprietornation.blogspot.com/Proprietor Nation: The Incredible Disappearing Story... (UPDATED WITH A VERY SPECIAL SHOUT OUT)
29th November 2007
14:55:47
No referring linkProprietor Nation
29th November 2007
14:58:32
proprietornation.blogspot.com/Proprietor Nation: Emory University
29th November 2007
15:00:01
proprietornation.blogspot.com/search/label/Emory%20UniversityProprietor Nation: Who Is The Real Sociopath??
29th November 2007
15:07:39
blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2007/10/09/emorys-skeletons-in-the-closet/Proprietor Nation: The Fox Guarding the Hen House
29th November 2007
15:07:53
blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2007/10/09/emorys-skeletons-in-the-closet/Proprietor Nation: Corruption
29th November 2007
15:08:23
proprietornation.blogspot.com/search/label/CorruptionProprietor Nation: A Plea to John Sugg of Creative Loafing



Let me explain what all of these names and numbers mean. This is the full detail of the IP address I spoke of (170.10.62.42). If you click the link it is identified and also identifies its server, Emory University. Everytime anyone visits here the date and time (Central time that is) is recorded. Those are what the dates and times mean. If a link was used to come to my site, that is also identified (for instance the one starting blog.creativeloafing is a site from which this IP linked from). If no link was used, then the words, no reference link appear. (this generally indicates the the address was typed out by the party using the computer. Thus it was likely that http://www.proprietornation.blogspot.com/ was entered into the address field in order to reach my site.) The specific web page is the web page that the party landed at. Sometimes, a party will travel within my site and so if you see two proprietornation pages, that means th party went from one page to another.

As you can see, not only is this IP visiting my site, but they are they are also visiting this story from October. (this is another story that doesn't necessarily paint Emory U in the best light)

The ongoing Grady Memorial Hospital crisis is bringing to the surface many complaints about Emory’s medical school role. In the past, Emory’s response to internal criticism has been to bully and crush the critics, and then try to keep the records sealed.

The latest on the blogosphere is about the persecution of Kevin Kuritzky, who was 41 days from graduation when Emory expelled him from the medical school. Kuritzky claims Emory was retaliating for his blowing the whistle on patient safety — or the lack thereof.

Now, I can assume that as the head of PR, one must know what is being said about their school, however isn't the work of the AJC, the New York Times, where they would want to spend their time predominantly. If I am getting this much traffic from PR, they frankly have very little time left for the AJC et al. Either that or the PR department is now exclusively focusing on surfing the internet for stories related to Emory. Why is my blog, with only several hundred hits daily, getting so much attention in the PR Department at Emory (if it isn't the PR person then frankly they really need to be fired because they are just surfing the internet to waste time then)?



I have already concluded that the powers that be at Emory removed a story from the internet archives at the AJC. I pointed out in a previous diary that this article, and more importantly Emory's response, was damning to Emory in three serious ways. (I won't rehash the story so please go to the links to catch up) I know that the article was removed in the aftermath of me publishing the piece because it is no longer there. I also know that reference to the same article was also removed from a page on Emory's own medical school site. (go to this google link and click on the top link found and see for yourself)



Now, I know that part of PR is damage control but isn't removing archived stories and web pages taking damage control a bit too far. I know that in PR you must know what the media is saying about you, but isn't obsessing about what a small blog says also taking things a bit too far. Unless of course, what that small blog is saying is true, and in that case, you probably would be obsessed. I have recently fallen in love with the phrase Res Ipsa Loquitor (the facts speak for themselves). You can call me crazy, an ego maniac, or suffering from delusions of grandeur, but I believe the fact that Emory's admin IP has become my biggest fan, shows that they know what I am saying is true.



If that is the case. Let's review what that means. Emory is operating as an all powerful sociopathic entity. They are criminally liable in providing medical services to poor folks at Grady Hospital and veterans at the VA hopsital and they have expelled a student, 41 days prior to graduation, for daring to expose their criminality. They have also paid off multiple professors with their silence who also tried to expose the corruption. Furthermore, since Grady Hospital, the subject of much of this corruption, is a public hospital that means that ultimately Emory University has committed all of these crimes and lapses in ethics and morality on the public.



Now, all of this is my supposition only, however, if my supposition is lunacy, why is the admin spending so much time on my blog? Don't take my word for it go and ask the admin yourself. I have provided the link and it has said person's email. See, what they have to say about all of this.

UPDATE:

170.140.62.42 is back. It is nothing short of surreal to update a piece about a party as that party is reading the piece themselves, however that is how it is in the internet age. Here is an updated link to what the stat counter calls the magnified user, a detailed summary of the movements of this particular IP address on my site (including the most recent and probably current visit) The only other thing I will point out is that while I have had much traffic from this IP there has been no contact by email or otherwise. There have previously been some peculiar anonymous messages, however anonymous speaks for itself, and it was also before I became savvy enough to track things down.

UPDATE:

I realize that if someone were to pick up this story somewhere in the middle they would get lost in its many mazes. Thus, if the first story you read regarding Grady Hospital is this one, you are probably confused. So, I have put together a summary of the entire fiasco that tries to put all of its moving parts together in one piece. Please read it for guidance. Also, please check out the recommendations that I and my colleagues have put together for fixing Grady Hospital.

An Updated Summary on the Fiasco at Emory, Grady, and Beyond

I just realized that anyone that picks up this story in the middle would get lost in its many mazes and connections. If anyone reads every single story in the Emory University tag, they would get a full picture, however that maybe beyond reason. First, I must disclose some things. There are things that I can prove. There are things I can assert and there are things that I believe. Finally, there are things that follow the Latin phrase, Res Ipsa Loquitor (the facts speak for themselves). I use different language for each.

So, let's start at the beginning. Emory University's Medical School runs a network of hospitals in the Atlanta area. There are five in all if my facts are right. Three are actually owned by Emory and service predominantly the affluent making them quite profitable. The other two are public hospitals and Emory has sort of contracts to staff them with their professors and students. This is no different than many teaching hospitals and if there are any ER fans, the fake hospital in that show runs in a similar manner.

That said, I want to focus a bit more on the two public hospitals with little profit potential. The first is the VA since veterans get set bills, and the second is Grady. Grady is a hospital for the indigent or very poor. Since poor folks rarely have money or insurance, it is much more difficult to make a profit on them. Grady is also a public hospital meaning that the tax payers ultimately are the ones that finance it. (as most indigent hospitals would be for the reasons that I mentioned. No one is going to want to bankroll a hospital that has no hope of making any real money so it is left to the government) Grady is also massive, one of the biggest hospitals in the country, and so while it provides little profit, it provides a bulk of the training.

Here is where things get interesting. Emory enjoys a lucrative relationship vis a vis Grady (I will explain as I go along how that relationship get consummated so to speak). For instance, they get a fat yearly fee of about 50 million dollars to provide staffing at Grady. Keep in mind that Grady is the training vehicle for most of its medical students. Emory already charges its medical students tuition and uses Grady for a lot of the training that this tuition is supposed to go for. Many people refer to this as double dipping. In other words, Emory University has one of the premiere medical schools in the country and one of the main reasons is their association with Grady Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the country. Thus, Grady provides just as much to Emory is Emory does to Grady. Furthermore, since Grady is a public hospital it is ultimately the tax payers that are stuck with the bill that Emory charges Grady yearly. Also, Grady Hospital pays for Emory's malpractice insurance. It goes without saying that such a relationship invites exploitation.

Exploitation and corruption is what you have at Grady in my opinion, and I really only need to do a Google search to provide plenty of evidence. For instance, Grady Hospital settled a case for Medicare fraud in the late 1990's for about 5 million dollars. A few years later former State Senator Charles Walker committed so much criminality at Grady and beyond that he was ultimately convicted of 127 felonies. (you can click this link for a full write up of the case including its particulars and most importantly what each hero and villain wound up receiving from Grady and Emory) In 2004, the Dept. of Health and Human Services conducted an investigation of Grady Hospital and here are the conclusions,

there is a serious and immediate threat to the health and safety of the patients

That is frankly the equivalent of a builder building you a house that falls down on top of you when you move in. (Only one person was let go in the aftermath, Dr. Andrew Ogwunobi, who has continued to travel an interesting path. You can find his full dossier here. It is important to note that the Chief Medical Officer of Grady Hospital, William Casarella, was cited most often in the actual report. I point this out because Casarella has since been promoted within Emory University. This is important for several reasons not the least of which because it goes to show that in many ways I believe the two entities cross over whenever it suits the powers that be)

Finally, currently Grady is in such financial turmoil that is about to be shut down unless there is a huge infusion of cash, about a hundred million minimum by my estimation. There were also other investigations that started and stopped like an interesting one conducted by the NIH in 2000. While there was ultimately no damning conclusions to those reports, I have my suspicions about how it was exactly that they ended. (for more information on that report and more importantly the role of Kent Alexander, Chief Legal Counsel for Emory University, please go this link. This is probably my most incendiary piece and illicited a flurry of looks from the Emory admin IP upon publishing)

This body of evidence is in my opinion an example of Res Ipsa Loquitor.

Now, while Grady is staffed by almost entirely Emory faculty, it is still a public hospital. It has a board and a CEO. The board chooses the CEO, and the board is chosen by the CEO of Dekalb County. The current CEO of Dekalb County is Vernon Jones. He is an elected official with a remarkable knack for thriving in what I would think are dicey political situations. (when I say dicey I mean things like rape accusations, shady land deals, and all sorts of malfeasance by those close to him Just like everything else, I have written a full write up of Jones as well. Jones is I believe the link between the corruption at Grady and the corruption that infects much of Georgia. We have a running debate about who the ultimate ringleader is and one theory is the Dixie Mafia, and you can vote in my fun poll after getting the full scoop)

Now, the problem as I see it is summed up by this cliche, the fox guarding the hen house. The board is supposed to oversee the CEO who is supposed to oversee the staff, and the CEO of Dekalb County is supposed to oversee all of them. The problem is that all the entities, in my estimation, are corrupted. From Jones, to the board, to the CEO, to the staff, the foxes are guarding the hen house so to speak. For instance, one very prominent member of the board was until two years ago Robert Brown. Robert Brown also runs an architecture firm. Three guesses which firm gets many of the most lucrative contracts for Grady expansion. If we dig deep enough, I have no doubt that there would be an almost endless amount of transactions with really or perceived conflicts of interest.

Enter, whistleblower Kevin Kuritzky...first, there is full disclosure here. Kevin and I have developed a tight relationship, and I have even done a radio show with. (It is linked at the end of my piece on Kent Alexander. Kevin is the calm one and I am the hyper one) I have never claimed traditional journalistic objectivity, and I am not a traditional journalist. I believe the quality and accuracy of the information I have provided speaks for itself. Every piece of data has been double and triple sourced minimum. I have hard copies for anything I don't link to like the aforementioned HHS report. (I can email or fax to anyone upon request)

Kevin has made some incendiary accusation about the quality of patient care at Grady Hospital. He claims that Emory staff goes to one of their for profit hospitals when they are supposed to be at Grady and many times he claims they leave medical students unsupervised. (In fact, in this piece I give an example that was verbalized to me by Kuritzky that is frankly straight out of a bad nightmare.) It goes without saying that his accusations, if true, amount to not only an obscene violation of several laws but frankly every doctor's oath. Kuritzky was expelled from medical school with forty one days remaining. (That is in a four year program) Kevin believes the charges are trumped up and he is now in the middle of a law suit. The Emory Wheel inaccurately reported that Kuritzky's case has been dismissed. It hasn't Kuritzky's side has lost a motion that is being appealed. (again, I have seen the disposition of this motion and it is NOT a dismissal) This was inaccurately reported in a trade journal for academics. (The fact that this was written in a trade journal for academics obviously raises all sorts of issues and I explored them here)

Finally, I have counted four former Emory professors that have been paid off for silence. I have only seen the settlement agreement for one pay off. That is for Dr. Jim Murtaugh. He was paid off right around the time that the NIH investigation was happening and he was paid off along with another person, Diane Owen (though her agreement I haven't seen) Murtaugh's settlement has been the subject of much media buzz because State Senator David Shafer has lead a group of state senators who have demanded that it be unsealed (and one main reason why I was able to see the agreement. (If you go here I explore the case of his records being unsealed. Interestingly enough, certain links disappeared in the aftermath of me publishing that, and I explored that here) (also, the Shafer link has some interesting information about who did and didn't approve his settlement so I encourage you to link there)

Now, why should you care? If you are a resident of Georgia, then it is your tax dollars that will ultimately go to fund something you should see is totally corrupt. This corruption is in my opinion part of even bigger corruption that I probably don't even have the full story to. If you are an Emory student, then your tuition, and likely your parent's money (who are you kidding), is contributing to this corruption. Furthermore, if Kevin really was only expelled because he dared blow the whistle on this, what is to stop Emory from targeting someone else. What if you become a threat to them for this or for anything? Clearly, if you believe my assertions, Emory eliminates all threats to them. They pay some off and they expel others. If you believe Kevin, then he had his life ruined for daring to the right thing. (he often tells me that his friends still in the medical school tell him that he should have kept his mouth shut and graduated and moved on) Furthermore, if you believe Kevin, then your school exhibits the traits of the common sociopath. Sociopaths with power is the worst combination you can have. If you are a citizen, then you should want that all corruption be dealt with appropriately and people be held responsible.


(UPDATE)

Some of you may be wondering where the media in Atlanta fits into all of this. This piece should drive home how the media's coverage, or rather lack thereof, fits into this whole story. This piece contrasts the Atlanta media with another situation in which the media actually did its job. Finally, here is an example of the sort of reporting you will find at the AJC.

The Fox Guarding the Hen House

This is the final report filed by the Grady Task Force. Let me sum up for anyone that doesn't want to bother to click the link. This is a report that is about thirty pages that is full technical jargon that almost no one can understand.

So, what is the Grady Task Force and why should anyone care? If you have been following my work, you know that Grady Hospital has been in financial turmoil for years and it has now come to a head. Grady Hospital is one of the biggest hospitals, one of the biggest public hospitals, and one of the biggest hospitals for the indigent in the country. It needs a huge infusion of tax payer funds, up to nine digits, or it will close down.

The Grady Task Force is a sort of consulting group, created by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, designed to make recommendations to "fix" Grady Hospital. The very fact that Grady Hospital needs this sort of consulting group is curious in and of itself.

This past spring Grady fired Alvarez and Marsals, a professional consulting firm it hired to recommend ways in which it could avert financial ruin. That was only after paying the firm a cool 300K plus, PER MONTH, and over 3 million dollars total. Consulting firms are nothing new for Grady Hospital. Frankly, Grady Hospital goes through consulting firms the way that Liz Taylor goes through husbands. They pay each of them handsomely and they are even thinking of hiring yet another despite having a "consulting firm" hand picked for them by the Chamber.

One would think that after spending roughly eight digits on consulting firm in about two years, Grady would finally figure out WHAT THE F$%K IS WRONG. That is if these consulting firms are being hired for their advice rather than other reasons. For instance, would it surprise anyone to learn that the principles of Alvarez and Marsals have close ties to Grady board member Michael Hollis? Would it surprise anyone to learn that all of the prior consulting firms were in one way or another hired for some reason other than their professional qualifications? It wouldn't surprise me, and my proof is in these Latin words, res ipsa loquitor. The facts speak for themselves, and the facts are that at least four consulting firms have produced a hospital on the brink of financial ruin. Again, Grady paid about ten million dollars for all of this consulting. If these relationships were on the level, this money would have produced something better than what we have.

Now, we have the Grady Task Force, an unpaid consulting firm. When, we examine the facts, I think that we will see that the Task Force has other financial considerations in Grady Hospital. The bulk of the members are community and business leaders and that gives the force a sort of rep. They are also individuals and entities with financial and professional interest in Grady, which makes me wonder if their advice is on the level.

For instance, there is Robert Brown. He is the former head of the Grady Board. He served on the board during a period in which Grady was convicted of Medicare fraud, State Senator Charles Walker was convicted of 127 felonies, many related to Grady, and an HHS report came out and concluded this,

there is a serious and immediate threat to the health and safety of the patients

Does it sound to anyone as though he has any business being on the board given his history of failure at Grady, and possibly obscene amounts of corruption. Did I mention that Robert Brown is also of RL Brown and Associates, an architecture firm? Would it surprise anyone if his own architecture firm was the recipient of several "sweetheart deals" for additions and upgrades to Grady during his tenure? The list is full of such names: Michael Johns, of Emory University, Michael B. Russell of H.J. Russell (also a recepient of several contracts), John E. Maupin, MD – ex-officio President & CEO Morehouse School of Medicine (another proprietor of Grady Hospital), Phil Humann CEO SunTrust Banks, Inc.(with significant financial ties to Emory University but who doesn't in Atlanta), etc. One would think that if a hospital is near financial ruin the last people that would be in charge of recommendations to fix it would be those who put it there in the first place. Not with Grady, in this case the very same people that were responsible for putting Grady in this position are now in charge of fixing it. That is why I call this piece: The Fox Guarding the Hen House.

Like I said earlier, most of the recommendations are quite technical and difficult for the layman to understand. One has caught my eye and it is a plan to make Grady Hospital run by a private corporation. Under this plan, Grady would still receive public funds so the only practical effect would be more secrecy when it came to public fund usage. Given Grady's history with corruption: State Senator Charles Walker, the Medicare fraud, so called double dipping and atrocious patient care, and all sorts of other unproven cases of malfeasance. Is going private and more secretive really the best way to "save Grady". It probably isn't however if I were looking to commit more corruption at Grady, I would certainly want to make it private.

I would love to hear what possible public benefit Grady going private would have. There appears to be none to me, though there is an obvious one if you wanted to commit more corruption. There is a vote coming soon in the Georgia legislature. My own read is that the folks of Georgia don't want the hospital to go private. There appears to be no public good in it. Thus, I can only see one reason for any politician to vote for that plan and by my estimation that vote disqualifies said politician from serving again.

Oh and finally, you want to add insult to injury. After Grady is done listening to the consulting recommendations of the unpaid Grady Task Force, they plan on hiring another paid consulting firm. Frankly, if the Grady Task Force is on the level one would think there would no longer be need for anymore consulting firm. If, that is, the Grady Task Force is on the level.

UPDATE:

While I tried to make this piece as comprehensive as possible, if this is your first exposure to the story behind the crisis at Grady Hospital you may very well be quite confused. Thus, I have put together a summary of the entire fiasco that tries to put all of its moving parts together in one piece. Please read it for guidance. Also, please check out the recommendations that I and my colleagues have put together for fixing Grady Hospital.

A Murder, A Suicide: Connecting More Dots in the Culture of Corruption (UPDATE)

Sheriff Elect Derwin Brown

The 2000 election for Sheriff of Dekalb County was bitter and difficult. It pitted incumbent Sheriff Sidney Dorsey against policeman Derwin Brown. Brown ran on a platform of cleaning up the corruption in the Sheriff's department. Many times the fingers of corruption were pointed directly at Dorsey himself. Dekalb County Sheriff's Department had a long history of corruption and Dorsey himself was no stranger to criminality.

Dorsey became the county's first black sheriff four years ago despite publicity about his arrests for domestic abuse and a manslaughter charge he once faced.

Reports also surfaced that Dorsey assigned inmates to work on houses of supporters of his wife, an Atlanta city councilwoman.

Other reports accused him of allowing deputies to work for his security company while on the clock. And a female deputy filed a lawsuit saying that she was denied a promotion because she ended an affair with Dorsey.

Brown's campaign message resonated and the voters voted him in overwhelmingly with him winning roughly two to one. Brown would never get a chance to fulfill any of his campaign promises. On December 15th, two days before he was to be sworn in, he was gunned down in his drive way.

Within months several people within the Sheriff's department or at least with strong ties to it were arrested. Those people included Paul Skyers, Devon Edwards, Patrick Cuffy (ultimately fingered as the shooter) and Melvin Walker. The man that authorities finally believed to be the ringleader and ultimately the person that gave the order was none other than the Sheriff at the time of the murder at least Sidney Dorsey.

Everyone eventually flipped on Dorsey and spent minimal or no time in jail. Most of their whereabouts are currently unknown, and Dorsey was ultimately convicted about five years later. He serves a sentence of 25 years.

Like with much of the corruption around it, this case leaves many more questions than answers. If a sheriff and several of his deputies and their contacts killed the incoming sheriff, then to me at least, that is the culture of corruption at its worst. Why then did the next Sheriff Thomas Brown (no relation) not clean house as Derwin Brown promised. (Thomas Brown, who was the former public safety officer of Dekalb County, was then selected by then Governor Roy Barnes to be the interim Sheriff)

Fellow candidates for sheriff and confidantes of Derwin Brown blasted the sheriff when he declined to fire all of those targeted for termination by the murdered sheriff-elect, or to hire those previously promised jobs. Although he has dismissed some personnel, Sheriff Brown has been criticized, both before and after the special election, for not fully embracing those changes.

When he came aboard, said Brown, the department was uneasy; he thinks his decisions have helped calm things.

"There may have been some concerns when I came in," said Brown. "I made very few staff changes. There were a few personnel changes -- we did let some people go -- but the heart and soul of the people who built this facility are still here."

It is this diarists opinion that whatever doubts anyone had that the Dekalb County Sheriff's Department had a systemic culture of corruption were tragically erased when its Sheriff elect was gunned down in a conspiracy involving several members of the department itself, including the top person. If ever there was a reason for wholesale house cleaning it was this tragic event. Yet, that didn't happen.

There was other things that raised my eyebrows. There were rumors of a hitlist. In fact, the prosecutor on the case J. Tom Morgan wore a bullet proof vest for safety. I was told that reporter (and current candidate for U.S. Senate) Dale Cardwell had a member of the sheriff's department sleeping in his house for a month because they felt he was a target. The motive for the shooting was said to be revenge. If there was a hitlist and other targets that wouldn't make sense. Was Dorsey really the ringleader or was this murder really the work of someone and something much bigger? Only the powers that be know that answer.

There was some media that wondered if Dorsey really was the ringleader. His family doesn't believe that all the perpetraters have been caught. To this day, his death and the events surrounding it continue to have more questions than answers. Much like most of the corruption in and around Dekalb County, whether its Grady Hospital, Emory University, or the Sheriff's Department, it always seems as though investigations only go so far before somehow, some way they end.

On August 26th, 2004, Charles Hicks, Dekalb County Attorney was found dead. The death of Charles Hicks was eventually ruled a suicide however I believe that this was another case in which there are more questions than answers. Ron Marshall, head of the Grady Coalition, was an acquaintance of Hicks. He told me that on many occasions he told him that he (Hicks) was concerned about all of the corruption that he was procuring. The first officer on the scene was one Donald Frank, a wily character that Marshall says he would run into again (and one I will get back to in a minute). The most damning piece of evidence was that the gun was found laying next to Hicks' right hand. This seems peculiar since Hicks was in fact left handed.

If Hicks was in the middle of a culture of corruption, and he wanted to get out, it would stand to reason that the powers that be would want him eliminated. It also stands to reason that the powers to be would have enough power to then cover up this same murder and turn it into a suicide. Of course, that is all mere speculation. Let's not speculate but rather look for patterns.

The Sheriff's Department had a culture of corruption that went back decades. Several of its sheriffs wound up on the wrong end of the jail cell.

Former Sheriff Pat Jarvis last year was sentenced to 15 months in prison and fined $40,000 for fraud. Ray Bonner, a sheriff in the mid-1970s, pleaded self-defense and was acquitted in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy in his front yard. And Lamar Martin, the sheriff in the late 1960s and early '70s, was convicted of bribery.

Of course after that, the next sheriff in line went in for murder.

While this was going on at the Sheriff's Department State Senator Charles Walker was fleecing Grady Hospital for millions of dollars. The State Senator committed so much crime that by the time he was done he was charged with 137 felonies and ultimately convicted on all but ten. Of course, he flipped on NO ONE. No one else was charged and he got ten years, or less than a month for each felony conviction. Then, we have the mysterious death Charles Hicks.

Who is running Dekalb County? That would be Vernon Jones. Jones is no stranger to trouble. His name has wound up on the police blotter roughly six times. It started in the mid eighties and the last known incident was this past December. The charges range from assault to rape. He's never been convicted of any of these crimes mind you. He's had more than a few questionable land deals including a prime piece of property (that he apparently bought for 500k in cash. Not bad for someone that makes a 100k per year) right next to a mall that he authorized the building of.

In fact, I only need to go to the same article where my research on Hicks began to find all sorts of malfeasance by Jones.

Jones' re-election campaign took its first hit, as one of his opponents, state Rep. Teresa Greene-Johnson, tried unsuccessfully to get a court protection order against him. Greene-Johnson alleged that Jones berated and threatened her on a campaign stop.


...

Within days of each other, Jones lost two political allies. Commissioner Lou Walker died from injuries sustained in a car accident and Jones' deputy chief of staff, Lance Robertson, was arrested and charged with the false imprisonment of a 19-year-old woman after a night of drinking at the W Hotel in Dunwoody.

It was revealed that Robertson had a criminal past, including a shoplifting conviction, that county officials did not investigate before Jones hired him. Robertson, who has been suspended without pay, denies any wrongdoing in the W Hotel incident.

Also in August, a federal lawsuit accused Jones and other county officials of discriminating against white employees. County officials denied the allegations.

That article merely describes a few months in 2004.

By 2006, Ron Marshall was challenging Jones for Dekalb County CEO. Jones introduced Marshall to hardball politics, Dekalb County style. Marshall told me that he was constantly followed throughout the campaign. There was background checks done on him, and he and his wife mysteriously wound up on the Homeland Security Terror Watch List. Only the powers that be know how that happened, however the director of Homeland Security for Dekalb County by this point just happened to be Donald Franks (yes the exact same one that also happened to be the first police officer on the scene of the Hicks death).

There is a Latin phrase, Res Ipsa Loquitor, and it means the facts speak for themselves. There is no question that Vernon Jones is part of the problem. Between the murder of a Sheriff elect, the fleecing of Grady Hospital, the harrassment of a candidate, and many other scandals in between, Res Ipsa Loquitor. Nothing has changed within the Sheriff's Department that occupies the County he is CEO of. Grady is now in desperate need of an infusion of cash or they will cease to exist, so nothing has changed there either. The facts speak for themselves: either he was in on it, he was too incompetent or too scared to stop it, he was asleep at the wheel, or something else. It ultimately matters not because there is no excuse for that much corruption to go on on his watch, Res Ipsa Loquitor.

So, what is Vernon Jones up to now? He's running for U.S. Senate. No, I am not kidding. If this sounds familiar just read this.

I believe that in order to create a culture of corruption, you need the police the politicians, and the media to be in on it or at least looking the other way. I think you can all see how the police are in on it. I think through this piece and in my entire series you can see how the politicians are in on it. How is the media in on it? Well, ask yourself this question. Why is a blogger from the Midwest asking questions the media in Atlanta should be asking? I will leave you with the words of a hero, Derwin Brown.

There have always been a few who have stood up for the many, often at times when the many would not stand for themselves. Whether out of fear, intimidation, or ignorance there have always been those who ride the victories and sacrifices of others, cheering and celebrating as if they dared to make a difference. Yes, even some who would minister to you about God's power and the armor and shield that "the word" provides seem to falter in their convictions when it's time to "step out on faith" and challenge the unrighteousness found in their workplace, community or government. What sacrifice are you willing to make for truth and righteousness? Are you leading a double life, speaking of injustices in whispers, while exclaiming all your faith in the creator? These are questions for self-examination. Are you willing to pick up the drum of justice? "THE TIME IS NOW!! PEACE"

Amen!!

UPDATE: This story speaks for itself and I believe that if this is your first exposure to the crisis at Grady Hospital and the dynamics that surround it, you should still have no trouble understanding this piece. That said, I have put together a summary of the entire fiasco that tries to put all of its moving parts together in one piece. Please read it for guidance. Thus, if you want to see how Vernon Jones, Derwin Brown, et al fit into the mess at Grady Hospital please read the link I just provided. Also, please check out the recommendations that I and my colleagues have put together for fixing Grady Hospital.