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October 2014

Posted by New Neo on October 25, 2014 21 Comments
There has been a fatal school shooting in Marysville, Washington. Here are some of the details:
What [a student in the school cafeteria] saw was freshman Jaylen Fryberg go up to a table with students, "came up from behind ... and fired about six bullets into the backs of them," Luton told CNN. "They were his friends, so it wasn't just random."... The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Marysville police spokesman Robb Lamoureux told reporters. Two girls are in the intensive care unit at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, and two boys are in ICU at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Providence spokeswoman Erin Al-Wazan said. Three are "very critically ill" with "very serious" injuries, she said. One is in serious condition. One of the boys, age 14, suffered a jaw injury. The other, age 15, was critically injured in the head.
The shooter and his victims are members of the Tulalip Native American tribe, and the two boys mentioned in the above quote are relatives of his:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 25, 2014 5 Comments
Some people think Obamacare is ancient history and Democrats would certainly like to believe that but it's still an important issue. Byron York of the Washington Examiner explains the how and why:
Who says Obamacare isn't major factor in midterms? Some Democrats and their advocates in the press believe Obamacare, a year into implementation, is no longer much of a factor in the midterm elections. But no one has told Republican candidates, who are still pounding away at the Affordable Care Act on the stump. And no one has told voters, especially those in states with closely contested Senate races, who regularly place it among the top issues of the campaign. In Arkansas, Republican challenger Tom Cotton is pulling ahead of incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor partly on the strength of a relentless focus on Obamacare. Cotton's newest ad attacks Pryor over the law, as did two of Cotton's four previous ads. "In our polling, [Obamacare] continues to be just as hot as it's been all year long," says a source in the Cotton campaign. "If you look at a word cloud of voters' biggest hesitation in voting for Mark Pryor, the two biggest words are 'Obama' and 'Obamacare.' Everything after that is almost an afterthought."
Voters have every reason to be suspicious. It turns out there are some things we won't be told until after the election. Valerie Richardson of the Washington Times has the story:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 25, 2014 11 Comments
Welcome to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Wisconsin Democratic Prosecutors:
The early-morning paramilitary-style raids on citizens’ homes were conducted by law enforcement officers, sometimes wearing bulletproof vests and lugging battering rams, pounding on doors and issuing threats. Spouses were separated as the police seized computers, including those of children still in pajamas. Clothes drawers, including the children’s, were ransacked, cellphones were confiscated and the citizens were told that it would be a crime to tell anyone of the raids.
That's what George Will calls The nastiest political tactic this year. Will was describing how dozens of conservative activists were targeted by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm in connection with the John Doe (No.2) investigation of supposed campaign law violations. That would be the same John Chisholm whose wife is a school union representative and who, according to a whistleblower, drove the investigation out of fury over Governor Scott Walker's collective bargaining reform bill. John Doe No. 2 relates to Walker's recall campaign, in which he defeated a national union effort to oust him, and whether there was illegal coordination with the conservatives who were targeted in the raid. A state court judge already has ruled that even if there was such coordination, it was not illegal. A federal District Court ruled the same way, but was reversed by the federal appeals court primarily on procedural grounds as to whether a federal court should interfere in a state investigation. The federal case may be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court in what could be another blockbuster campaign regulation case on the scale of Citizens United, if the court takes the case. In a second federal case brought by a different conservative group, the same District Judge ordered Wisconsin not to enforce its coordination law as relates to issue advocacy.  We'll see if that holds up on appeal. More from Will's column, calling John Doe No. 2 the "nastiest episode" of this political season:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 25, 2014 26 Comments
Wow. While campaigning for Martha Coakley in Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton took a jab at trickle down economics and in the process of doing so, claimed that corporations and businesses don't create jobs. The Washington Free Beacon has the story:
Hillary Clinton: Corporations and Businesses Don’t Create Jobs At a Democratic rally in Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton’s attempt to attack “trickle-down economics,” resulted in a spectacularly odd statement. Clinton defended raising the minimum wage saying “Don’t let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs, they always say that.” She went on to state that businesses and corporations are not the job creators of America. “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” the former Secretary of State said.
Here's the video: On a related note, do you know who's a big fan of trickle down economics?

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 25, 2014 4 Comments
While all the Ebola-stricken patients in America seem to be on the road to recovery, with the tragic exception of patient zero Thomas Duncan, Enterovirus-D68 is reported to have claimed its 8th victim:
The U.S. death toll from the mysterious Enterovirus D-68 continues to rise. The latest CDC update on the current outbreak of the polio-like Enterovirus D-68 states that it has now been detected “in specimens from eight patients who died and had samples submitted for testing.” That’s one more death than was disclosed in last week’s update. The CDC account does not provide any information as to where the patient died and does not disclose his/her name, age or other details. According to the latest weekly update from CDC, 167 more people have been sickened with EV-D68 in the past week: a total of 973 patients in 47 states and the District of Columbia. That’s up from last week’s total of 796 people in 46 states.
Two new cases have just been reported in North Florida.
Unlike the popular saying, if it quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. Health department workers tell us Enterovirus D-68 is a lot like having the common cold, except it isn't. ...Elmira Warren a Gainesville resident said, "I am concerned, I think it's important for us to be in touch with our bodies and if we have any type of symptoms that may be similar to that we should see our physicians."
And Arizona reports its first confirmed case, but many other cases are awaiting the results of testing to determine of they are related to infection with this pathogen.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 24, 2014 7 Comments
David Brock is the founder of Media Matters for America, who's goal was to destroy Fox News and Rush Limbaugh by any means necessary. Brock also is the person behind American Bridge, the entity formed to hire trackers to follow Republicans. One tracker caught David Perdue, the Republican candidate for Senate in George, at a rally, and posted a video purporting to show Perdue signing his name on a woman's hip. The video was spread far and wide including at mainstream media publications such as The Washington Post as Perdue signing the woman's body. But, as Buzzfeed reports, which originally reported it as "David Perdue Signs Woman" (based on the url), the video was misleading, CORRECTED: Dems Miss Insulin Pump In Video Of Perdue Signing Young Woman (large print in original):
David Perdue, the Republican nominee for Senate in Georgia, appeared to sign a young woman’s torso at a campaign rally on Thursday in a video distributed by a Democratic opposition research group — but further video showed that the footage was misleading. “No pictures on this,” Perdue joked before autographing something on the hip of a young woman, while campaign staffers tried to block the scene from being filmed. The footage was captured by a Democratic tracker with the firm American Bridge at a Perdue campaign rally in Jonesboro, Georgia.

Correction: The American Bridge tracker footage did not capture the whole scene, according to the Perdue campaign.

“David was asked to sign an individual’s diabetic pump to help raise awareness for juvenile diabetes,” said Megan Whittemore, a Perdue spokesperson. “This was a Georgia family who shared their personal story of their struggle with ObamaCare and the rising health care costs associated with their daughter’s treatment which is not being covered by their insurance.”

Another angle on the video, not captured by Republicans or Perdue allies, appears to show the young woman is holding something on her body for Perdue to sign.

The pump is featured in the enhanced image from the Perdue campaign, via the Buzzfeed post. It appears the original video has been taken down, but here's the other angle referred to by Buzzfeed:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 24, 2014 6 Comments
We covered last night the debate between Democratic challenger Martha Robertson and incumbent Republican Tom Reed. The "highlight" of the debate was the crowd laughing loudly when Robertson claimed Reed was "part of the War Against Women." That line, and the crowd's reaction, has received a fair amount of mocking attention. As of this writing, the video has over 15,000 views. The line was laughable not just for the contrived way in which it was delivered, but also because it made no sense to anyone with local knowledge of Tom Reed. He is the epitome of someone who does not wage a war against women.  He is known to be respectful and thoughtful both in his demeanor and consideration of legislation. Robertson, once again, obviously was just reading from a playbook, but using it against the wrong person. The "War Against Women" attack was a major blunder according the post-debate this analysis on the TV station that ran the debate:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 24, 2014 18 Comments
Ebola infected nurse Nina Pham was released from the National Institute of Health hospital today after being cured of Ebola. Great news not only for Pham, but for those of you with Ebolanoia as well. Pham contracted the virus while taking care of Eric Duncan, the Liberian who passed away from the virus in a Dallas hospital earlier this month. According to The Guardian:
Dr Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the NIH, gave Pham a hug and told reporters that five consecutive tests showed no virus left in her blood. “She is cured of Ebola, let’s get that clear,” Fauci said. Pham’s release comes a day after a doctor in New York City who had been treating Ebola patients in west Africa was diagnosed with the virus. Dr Craig Spencer is being treated in isolation at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan. The 26-year-old Pham arrived last week at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. She had been flown there from Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where she became infected while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of the virus 8 October. A second Dallas nurse who became infected after treating Duncan has also been pronounced free of the virus, family members said this week. Amber Vinson, who flew to Ohio and back before she was diagnosed, is being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bentley, Pham's dog has also tested negative for Ebola, but will remain in quarantine until the 21 days have lapsed:

Posted by Amy Miller on October 24, 2014 39 Comments
We have reported extensively on the ongoing tension in Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown. Most recently, it was revealed that the shooting was not an act of random racial violence, but a likely act of self-defense. That hasn't stopped the NGOs from marching in with their reports, though. A recent report from Amnesty International accuses members of the Ferguson police department of committing human rights abuses as they attempted to control protests in the wake of the shooting. Via Reuters:
The Amnesty International report said law enforcement officers should be investigated by U.S. authorities for the abuses, which occurred during weeks of racially charged protests that erupted after white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9. The use by law enforcement of rubber bullets, tear gas and heavy military equipment and restrictions placed on peaceful protesters all violated international standards, the group said. Amnesty said it sent a delegation to Ferguson from Aug. 14-22 to monitor the situation. ... The report also criticizes a Missouri law that the group said may be unconstitutional because it allows police to use deadly force against someone even if there is no imminent threat of harm. The report calls on state lawmakers to make Missouri law comply with international standards making lethal force by police a last resort, said Rachel Ward, director of research at Amnesty International. "Lethal force is only to be used to protect life when there is an immediate threat," Ward said. "The Missouri statute goes far beyond that. It is of grave concern."
This is nothing new. The global governance sect has a long history of using "international standards" to strongarm local and/or national governments into ceding their sovereignty to the whims of a constantly changing global order.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 24, 2014 14 Comments
Yesterday, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by two targets of the Wisconsin John Doe investigation to rehear a decision by a three-judge panel to vacate an injunction issued by the District Court preventing the state investigation from continuing. (Order at bottom of post.) The substantive issue underlying the case is whether the Wisconsin campaign regulations violated the First Amendment, specifically laws that purportedly bar "issue advocacy" coordination between campaigns and outside groups. In the John Doe investigation, the Milwaukee County prosecutor -- who allegedly has a family political bias -- targeted dozens of conservative Wisconsin activists for sweeping subpoenas. Two of the targets -- Eric O'Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth -- filed suit in federal court to halt the investigation, and for money damages. The District Court granted the injunction and allowed the case to move forward. The 7th Circuit, however, reversed the District Court. That original 7th Circuit decision was based, primarily, on the issue of whether a federal court in this circumstance should interfere in a state court investigation. The 7th Circuit panel ruled that the federal court should abstain. I reached out to one of the lawyers for the John Doe targets, Andrew Grossman, as to whether Supreme Court review via a Petition for Certiorari would be sought, and he responded as follows:
"We will be seeking Supreme Court review and have every expectation that the Seventh Circuit's decision will be reversed."

Posted by Amy Miller on October 24, 2014 7 Comments
We've discussed previously the vast sources of funding that ISIS controls. Whether those funds come from their control (and smuggling) the region's oil supply, or from the home governments and families of hostages, the steady stream of cash flowing into ISIS coffers enables its members to step out of the shadows and fight not only for territory, but for the hearts and minds of the people they threaten to savage. From Yahoo News:
“With the important exception of some state-sponsored terrorist organizations, ISIL is probably the best-funded terrorist organization we have confronted,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said on Thursday in a speech to a Washington,D.C., think tank. At a subsequent briefing at the White House, Cohen declined to provide an estimate of the group’s net worth today. From mid-June until President Barack Obama unleashed airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against it, the Islamist organization scored $1 million per day from smuggled oil, Cohen said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He declined to say how much the airstrikes, which began on Sept. 23, have sliced into the group’s oil revenue.
Their sources of funding go beyond what we've seen highlighted in the news. In addition to oil smuggling and kidnapping, ISIS enjoys healthy profits from local extortion schemes, the plundering of antiquities, and sex trafficking. A report from the American Foreign Press details how ISIS makes these schemes work: through use of legitimate, existing economic structures. For example, their oil smuggling scheme is so intricate that at one point, Syria was buying its own oil; the oil had been harvested on Syrian territory controlled by ISIS.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 24, 2014 9 Comments
Early voting is looking good for Iowa Republican Joni Ernst. In fact, it's looking better than usual. Kirsten Hunter of the Washington Free Beacon reports that even CNN is acknowledging the trend:
CNN: Iowa Early Vote Data Shows Unprecedented Republican Numbers Elated Republicans are celebrating the unprecedented success of U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst (R) in Iowa’s early voting. Iowa Republicans banked a surge of early voters this week, a practice usually dominated by Democrats in the state. Ernst’s unprecedented success is also the result of her opponent, Rep. Bruce Braley’s, failure to mobilize Iowa Democrats despite receiving support from high-profile figures including the Clintons and the seat’s current holder, Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa). “Braley hasn’t run a great campaign,” said CNN reporter Peter Hamby. “Look at the early vote numbers in that state. Democrats in the last two or three cycles have really done well by running up the early vote number.” Hamby elaborated that Republicans are at a “parity” with Democrats after assessing this week’s early Republican votes. This “has never happened before,” Hamby said. “Braley wants that number to be higher.”
Here's the video segment: This surge may explain why liberal news sites are attacking Joni Ernst for expressing her completely Constitutional views on the Second Amendment.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 23, 2014 44 Comments
The New York Times and CBS have both confirmed that Dr. Craig Spencer has tested positive for Ebola:
“Today, EMS HAZ TAC Units transferred to Bellevue Hospital a patient who presented a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms,” New York City officials said in a statement. “The patient is a health care worker who returned to the U.S. within the past 21 days from one of the three countries currently facing the outbreak of this virus.” Spencer, who is a physician in his 30s and works with Doctors Without Borders, came back a week ago from Guinea, where he is believed to have been treating Ebola patients. “A person in New York City, who recently worked with Doctors Without Borders in one of the Ebola-affected countries in West Africa, notified our office this morning to report having developed a fever,” Doctors Without Borders said in a statement. “As per the specific guidelines that Doctors Without Borders provides its staff on their return from Ebola assignments, the individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately. While at this stage there is no confirmation that the individual has contracted Ebola, Doctors Without Borders, in the interest of public safety and in accordance with its protocols, immediately notified the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, which is directly managing the individual’s care.”
Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo are scheduled to hold a news conference from Bellevue Hospital at approximately 9 p.m. (Embedded below the fold.)

Posted by Amy Miller on October 23, 2014 7 Comments
(UPDATE: Officials have confirmed a diagnosis of Ebola. See our updated post here. A physician who recently returned from a Doctors Without Borders mission to West Africa is in isolation at New York's Bellevue Hospital after presenting with a 103 degree fever. Here we go again. NBC News reports:
"While at this stage there is no confirmation that the individual has contracted Ebola, Doctors Without Borders, in the interest of public safety and in accordance with its protocols, immediately notified the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, which is directly managing the individual’s care," Doctors Without Borders said in a statement. Health care workers are among those at highest risk of being infected, because they work so closely with very ill patients and are in frequent contact with infectious bodily fluids such as vomit. “The patient was transported by a specially trained HAZ TAC unit wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE),” the city health department said in a statement, adding that after consultation with the hospital and the CDC, they would test for Ebola. They are also checking him for malaria, salmonella and stomach viruses because they can all cause similar symptoms.
Dr. Craig Spencer, the latest patient, had been monitoring himself since his return, and thankfully did the right thing by reporting his fever to the appropriate officials. Reports haven't revealed where Dr. Spencer was practicing, but if he was in a country that was placed under recently-implemented travel restrictions, the next few weeks could be...interesting...for elected officials:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 23, 2014 13 Comments
Elizabeth Warren has said many times that she "is" not running for President. Yet still the progressive movement doubts her, convinced that she is just waiting for the right moment. Because in their heart of hearts, they believe that Warren would crush Hillary. I believe Hillary knows that too. And so does Elizabeth. The polls mean nothing now because Warren "is" not running. Progressives want her so much, they have reached the point of Kremlinology when it comes to Warren:
During the Cold War, lack of reliable information about the country forced Western analysts to "read between the lines" and to use the tiniest tidbits, such as the removal of portraits, the rearranging of chairs, positions at the reviewing stand for parades in Red Square, the choice of capital or small initial letters in phrases such as "First Secretary", the arrangement of articles on the pages of the party newspaper "Pravda" and other indirect signs to try to understand what was happening in internal Soviet politics.
[caption id="attachment_103768" align="alignnone" width="575"]http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2007/10/post_493.html (Photo via Classical Values)[/caption] A recent article in The Nation reflects this technique, Did Elizabeth Warren Just Change Her Tune on Running for President?:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 23, 2014 7 Comments
Some good news related to Ebola: The nurse who flew to Ohio while ill with an Ebola infection has been declared free of the virus.
Dallas nurse Amber Vinson is free of the Ebola virus and will be transferred from isolation at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, her family said Wednesday. The family also said that the 29-year-old nurse, who contracted the virus from Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, was regaining strength and that her spirits were high. "We are overjoyed to announce that, as of yesterday evening, officials at Emory University Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control (and Prevention) are no longer able to detect virus in her body," the family said in a statement hours after Vinson spoke with her mother, Debra Berry.
And as the 21-day quarantine ends for the family of the late Thomas Duncan and the healthcare professionals who cared for him during his fatal bout, new questions are being asked about the time period of isolation itself.
As the 48 patients exposed to the first U.S. Ebola patient near the end of their 21-day incubation period on Sunday, Oct. 19, a new study is questioning whether that period is sufficient to keep the public safe. "Twenty-one days has been regarded as the appropriate quarantine period for holding individuals potentially exposed to Ebola Virus to reduce risk of contagion, but there does not appear to be a systemic discussion of the basis for this period," lead researcher Charles Haas, an environmental engineering professor at Drexel University, wrote in the study paper.
In the meantime, it is heartening to learn that nobody else has succumbed to hemorrhagic fever as a result of Duncan's actions.
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