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Posted by Andrew Branca on October 05, 2014 47 Comments
Look up irony in the dictionary, and by all rights you should find a footnote pointing to this news story from CBS re: Ferguson MO: "Ferguson residents frustrated over lack of opportunity." The story notes that the previous night was sufficiently quiet--"just eight arrests"--and that the National Guard is pulling out (meaning, productive people are being released to go back to their day jobs.) The irony arose when the reporter spoke to local Ferguson residents.  The common theme among those interviewed was outrage that local businesses--you know, the ones that had been relentlessly looted and vandalized by local residents--had not hurried to rebuild and offer jobs to local residents. Huh.  Who knew that robbing and burning local businesses might prove a disincentive to them investing and hiring in the community! Anybody remember this guy? Beer

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Posted by Mike LaChance on October 05, 2014 12 Comments
Americans' fears about the spread of Ebola are growing, and the constant debunking of the Obama Administrations' claims regarding the severity of the situation haven't done much to gain the confidence of the public. Dan Nather of Politico doesn't seem to have a firm grasp on the reality of the current situation:
GOP 2016ers on Ebola: Panic For once, President Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Rick Perry are on the same page. At separate briefings on the Ebola crisis, Obama administration officials and Perry have delivered the same message: Don’t panic — the health authorities know what they’re doing. But for other Republicans — and conservative media outlets — it’s time for panic. The likely 2016 Republican presidential candidates — except for Perry — are practically lining up to warn that the Obama administration isn’t doing enough to keep Ebola out of the United States, now that Dallas is dealing with the nation’s first confirmed case.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 04, 2014 42 Comments
One of the most troubling tendencies of the Obama Administration and their minions in the media is to relabel a problem, giving the appearance that solutions are on their way. Exhibit 1: An act of terror becomes a "man-caused disaster". Exhibit 2: The prohibition on the term "illegal alien". Now, the illness associated with a terrible pathogen is now being reclassified from "Ebola Virus Hemorrhagic Fever" to "Ebola Virus Disease". LI #08 Ebola VD This seems to be an attempt to lull people into a false sense of security, lumping it with other "Virus Diseases" like the flu and the common cold. I have taught bloodborne pathoghen safety from the early 1990's, when healthcare, security, and first-aid providers were worried about contracting AIDS. Ebola is rated as a class 4 pathogen because of its fatality rates in humans and the fact that there is no cure or treatment. It is, and remains, a "hemorrhagic fever". It did not stop being a Class 4 pathogen once it hit the Dallas hospital. The mechanism of attack, which includes destruction of the endothelial cells that weaken the blood vessels and cause excessive bleeding, has not changed. Once the blood vessels are weakened, a suite of devastating symptoms occurs, as noted in a Business Insider article published in July of this year.

Posted by Andrew Branca on October 04, 2014 25 Comments
So, people send me stuff. Which I love. And sometimes what they send makes me want to both laugh, and cry. Today I was sent a link to a video on the Bloomberg news site, about a company named Hardwire that has for years provided high-tech armoring materials to combat vehicles in the Middle East wars. Of course, those wars are drying up (ha-ha, right), so companies serving that "market" now find themselves seeking alternative customers. In the case of Hardwire they've decided to take their high-end armor material, Dyneema, and use it to make small bullet-proof whiteboards for use in schools as shields--no, I'm not kidding, as shields--against active shooters who may attack as in Sandy Hook. Bloomberg's video embeds early an utterly trite quote from Obama, and then starts with the company's pitch:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 04, 2014 9 Comments
Harry Reid's attacks on the Koch Brothers have been plentiful and well documented. While his obsession and poor taste have been noted on many conservative blogs, there hasn't been much push back from the media. That's what makes this segment from MSNBC's Morning Joe so special. Not only does host Joe Scarborough call Reid's attacks pathetic, he points out the large amount of money the Senate Majority PAC has spent on political ads this year. From the Washington Free Beacon:
MSNBC Blasts Sen. Reid As Hypocritical: ‘Sad And Pathetic’ To Call Koch Bros Un-American Even MSNBC is turning against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.). Reid has repeatedly criticized the Koch brothers and other big-money Republicans on the Senate floor. In March, Reid called the Koch brothers un-American, immoral, and dishonest for their hefty donations, even though Reid’s Senate Majority PAC has been the biggest spender of the midterm elections. It is “sad and pathetic when somebody calls a person un-American, especially when they are bigger offenders of the action he defines as ‘un-American,’” Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough said on Friday.

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Posted by Mike LaChance on October 04, 2014 20 Comments
As Americans become increasingly concerned about the spread of Ebola in the United States, there is a growing call to cut off flights to and from Liberia. Senator Ted Cruz has even contacted the FAA. Niels Lesniewski of Roll Call reported:
Ted Cruz Asks FAA About Ebola Flight Ban Sen. Ted Cruz is asking the Federal Aviation Administration what it’s doing to prevent the spread of Ebola after the first U.S. diagnosis, which came in his home state. “Given the severity of this virus and the fact that its spread to Texas has been associated with travel, it is imperative that the FAA take every available precaution in preventing additional cases from arriving in the United States. As you may be aware, several African nations have already restricted or banned air travel to countries with confirmed cases of the Ebola virus,” the Texas Republican wrote in a letter to FAA chief Michael P. Huerta. “British Airways, Emirates Airlines and Kenya Airways have also suspended flights due to the rising death toll and deteriorating public health situation in Ebola-stricken countries.”
One recent voice on CNN, an author named David Quammen believes doing such a thing would be wrong because of slavery. I kid you not. Brendan Bordelon of National Review has the story:
CNN Guest: ‘How Dare We’ Cut Off Liberia Flights When ‘American Slavery’ Created That Country An author on Anderson Cooper’s CNN program Thursday said the United States is uniquely obligated to maintain air links with the Ebola-ridden nation of Liberia, claiming it would be immoral to quarantine a nation created through “American slavery.”

Posted by New Neo on October 04, 2014 13 Comments
US Ebola patient zero, Thomas Eric Duncan, recent arrival from Liberia, had to go to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital twice to get admitted. On his first go-round, the hospital sent him home with antibiotics even though a nurse had obtained information that he'd been in Liberia, and despite the fact that his symptoms were consistent with the early signs of Ebola. If Duncan had been admitted on that initial visit his diagnosis would still have been a big story and a distressing one, but nothing as awful as the situation we're currently in. That being said, it's been difficult to obtain much information about how the mistake happened. Here's the relevant section of the initial press conference with hospital official, Dr. Mark Lester:
(INAUDIBLE QUESTION) LESTER: A checklist was in place for Ebola in this hospital for several weeks. And Dr. Ed Goodman (ph), to my right, had led the implementation of that. That checklist was utilized by the nurse who did ask that question. That nurse was part of a care team. And it was a complex care team taking care of him in the emergency department. Regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team. And as a result, the full import of that information wasn't factored into the clinical decision-making. The overall clinical presentation was not yet typical for Ebola; so as the team assessed him, they felt clinically it was a low-grade common viral disease. That was the presentation. (INAUDIBLE QUESTION) LESTER: He volunteered that he had traveled from Africa in response to the nurse operating the checklist and asking that question. (INAUDIBLE QUESTION) LESTER: I can't answer that question because that's one piece of information that would be factored into the entire clinical picture. The clinicians did not factor it in. So it was not part of their decision-making. (INAUDIBLE QUESTION) LESTER: I -- that's a question that's really not in my domain.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 04, 2014 17 Comments
A video published earlier this month now making the rounds on the internet is drawing all kinds of mockery, and deservedly so. On YouTube, the video is summarized as follows:
It seems like it's okay to say mean things about someone just because they're Republican. That isn't right. Before you write another mean post about Republicans, remember Republicans are people, too.
Former Romney ad guy, Vinny Minchillo, is the brains behind the terrible ad. Minchillo told Fox News, "he’s trying to “catch a wave” of interest by launching “Republicans Are People, Too” shortly before the midterm elections – though he’s not advocating for any particular candidates. I appreciate the idea: debunking the lame, white guy Republican stereotype. In fact, it's something I wrote about in a 2012 election post-mortem:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 03, 2014 8 Comments
Democrat Martha Robertson, whose struggling campaign to unseat incumbent Tom Reed has struggled (and then some), didn't need any more problems than she already had. But the Sierra Club, which has endorsed Robertson, just created more problems by suing to prevent conversion of a coal fired power plant in western New York to gas. That would result in the power plant shutting down, killing jobs. Tom Reed wasted no time in asserting that this reflected Robertson's "extreme liberal agenda": Reed Robertson NRG Sierra Club lawsuit
Tom Reed today vowed to stand firm against Martha Robertson's extreme liberal agenda and the devastating actions of Robertson’s liberal supporters and campaign donors who have filed suit against the Dunkirk NRG conversion in Chautauqua County. The Sierra Club has joined with Ratepayers and Community Interveners to file suit with the State Supreme Court to derail the $140 million dollar project to convert the NRG power plant to natural gas. The suit threatens the bipartisan solution supported by Governor Cuomo and Senator Schumer – likewise, Robertson’s supporters also threaten local jobs with a potential devastating effect on Chautauqua County.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 03, 2014 10 Comments
As if the situation in Ferguson, Missouri wasn't bad enough, Code Pink has decided to join the riots and protests. Code Pink infamously dressed as vaginas and paraded around the RNC in 2012. They also protested the maker of my favorite body wash, Ahava, (made in Israel), because it contains "occupied mud." More ominously, Medea Benjamin, the leader of Code Pink, just attended a gathering of anti-Israel groups, including notorious anti-Semites, in Tehran, as reported by Buzzfeed:
A number of American and European antiwar activists and conspiracy theorists have gathered in Tehran for a conference aimed at addressing supposed Zionist control of the United States, according to Iranian press reports and the Anti-Defamation League. Code Pink chief Medea Benjamin, journalist and former Cambodian genocide denier Gareth Porter, conspiracy journalist and 9/11 truther Wayne Madsen, and PressTV contributor Kevin Barrett are all reportedly at the conference. Other reported attendees include Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, the anti-Semitic French comedian whose performances have been banned in several French jurisdictions, several Holocaust deniers, and former congressman Mark Siljander, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to being an unregistered foreign agent for an Islamic charity that the government said was connected to terrorism.
Capitalizing on the two month anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, Code Pink is among the groups organizing a Weekend of Resistance, and is equating Ferguson to Gaza:

Posted by Amy Miller on October 03, 2014 16 Comments
A three-judge panel has overturned a previous ruling blocking implementation of Texas' new abortion restrictions. Last month, the State of Texas appealed a U.S. District Court decision blocking the new restrictions, saying that the court's application of the "undue burden" standard was improper. The Fifth Circuit panel agreed with the state's argument, keeping consistent with their own precedent regarding what constitutes an unconstitutional restriction on a woman's right to seek an abortion. Predictably, abortion advocates are crying foul. Via USA Today:
"Today's ruling has gutted Texas women's constitutional rights and access to critical reproductive health care and stands to make safe, legal abortion essentially disappear overnight,'' said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the group. ... Among the law's provisions is the requirement that clinics performing abortion procedures upgrade to certain hospital-type equipment, which Northup's group calls "a multimillion-dollar tax on abortion services.'' ... "Texas Republicans are forcing women's health clinics to close,'' said Lisa Paul, spokeswoman for the Texas state Democratic Party. "This will not only deny women their right to choose, but also reduces their access to prenatal care, cancer screenings, mammograms, and annual wellness visits.''

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 03, 2014 27 Comments
Some Democrats are running for election or re-election this November but all Democrats are running as fast as they can from Obama. For his part, the president isn't doing them any favors. In a speech at Northwestern University yesterday, Obama tied himself and his deeply unpopular policies directly to the Democratic Party and the 2014 elections. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post reported:
28 words that Democrats really wish President Obama didn’t say today Here are the four sentences that will draw all of the attention (they come more than two thirds of the way through the speech): "I am not on the ballot this fall. Michelle’s pretty happy about that. But make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them." Boil those four sentences down even further and here's what you are left with: "Make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them." You can imagine Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas or Sen. Kay Hagan in North Carolina or Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky grimacing when they heard those 28 words. That trio has spent much of the campaign insisting that this election is NOT about Barack Obama, that it is instead about a choice between themselves and their opponents.

Posted by David Gerstman on October 03, 2014 10 Comments
The lead article in the October issue of Commentary by Omri Ceren is Yes, Israel Won in Gaza. Ceren's central premise is that Hamas built a huge terror infrastructure including tunnels, an enhanced rocket arsenal and specialized training for its terrorists, but "[a]ll of it was gone by mid-August." Hamas' plans for a spectacular terror attack against Israel and a coup against Fatah in the West Bank similarly were stymied. But what really grabbed me about the article was his description of the escalation:
In Gaza, Hamas radically escalated what had been, since the beginning of the year, a steadily increasing stream of rocket fire. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon had declared in January that Jerusalem would “not tolerate rocket fire” and that the “IDF and other security forces will continue to chase after those who shoot at Israel.” February saw more rockets and a large bomb planted on the border. In March, Hamas fired its heaviest rocket barrage since the conclusion of Israel’s 2012 incursion into Gaza—but then the fire steadily decreased throughout April and May.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 03, 2014 3 Comments
We reported last night on a demand by one of the targets of the Wisconsin John Doe investigation for a Special Prosecutor to investigate the John Doe prosecutors, particularly John Chisholm, WI “John Doe” target seeks criminal investigation of prosecutors Also last night, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that a new lawsuit on behalf of a conservative group has been filed alleging that the John Doe prosecutors violated conservative groups’ rights:
As a sixth lawsuit was filed Thursday connected to an investigation of Gov. Scott Walker and his conservative allies, the leader of one group being probed took to the airwaves to accuse Milwaukee's district attorney and state election officials of engaging in "domestic spying." "We have in Wisconsin a taxpayer-funded domestic spying operation of over three years' duration conducted by the Milwaukee County DA, John Chisholm, and now in concert with Kevin Kennedy at the Government Accountability Board, which is corrupt and so is Kennedy," said Eric O'Keefe, one of the directors of the Wisconsin Club for Growth. O'Keefe spoke to WISN-AM (1130) host Vicki McKenna. His comments came as a Milwaukee County group sued Chisholm, Kennedy and the members of the accountability board, arguing it has a constitutional right to collaborate with candidates — raising issues at the heart of the legal battle over whether Walker and the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative organizations have illegally worked together. Citizens for Responsible Government Advocates has not been involved in the investigation connected to Walker. But the group has been a longtime Walker ally, and its lawsuit addresses what has been raised in the investigation into his campaign's activities. The lawsuit is being funded by a group affiliated with O'Keefe using lawyers who have represented O'Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth.
The Complaint in the new case now is available on PACER, and is embedded in full below.
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