Saturday, October 4, 2014
‘You’re the head of the CDC – are YOU STUPID?!’ – Judge Jeanine RIPS our Ebola response
◼ I have a feeling we’re going to look back at this week and sorely regret our government’s actions. - The Right Scoop
Labels:
#FAIL,
CDC,
Ebola,
Jeannine Pirro,
Lies,
MEDICINE,
National Security,
President/Candidate Obama,
Quarantine
Plane At Newark Airport Held As CDC Investigates Sick Passenger For Ebola
◼ A plane at Newark Liberty International Airport, just 30 minutes outside of New York City, has been sealed over fears that a passenger on board is carrying the Ebola virus, according to a report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating United Airlines Flight 998 from Brussels, after reports that a passenger had begun vomiting on the plane, CBS reported. - Laura Ingraham
◼ Vomiting passenger cleared of Ebola after CDC investigation at Newark Airport - NY Daily News
The passengers of a United Airlines flight from Brussels were quarantined over fears of the deadly virus that has already killed thousands in West Africa. Two passengers were taken to a Newark hospital for an illness that was not Ebola.
Weekly Republican Address: NY-21 Candidate Elise Stefanik
In this week’s Republican address NY-21 candidate Elise Stefanik talks about the choice facing voters in November.
Labels:
Economy,
Elise Stefanik,
GOP Weekly Address,
Jobs
A Plan to Use Survivors’ Blood for Ebola Treatment in Africa
◼ With no proven drugs to treat Ebola and experimental ones in short supply, the health authorities are planning to turn instead to a treatment that is walking around in the outbreak zone in West Africa. - NYT
That would be the blood of people who have been sickened by the Ebola virus but have since recovered. Their blood should contain antibodies that might help other patients fight off the infection.
The World Health Organization is making it a priority to try such convalescent blood or plasma, as it is called, and is talking with the affected countries about how to do it.
This week, the organization issued guidance on how to collect the blood and administer transfusions.
“The concept that this treatment could be efficacious is biologically plausible, as convalescent plasma has been used successfully for the treatment of a variety of infectious agents,” the W.H.O. guidance document says.
Plausibility, however, is not proof that such treatments would work for Ebola and some virologists doubt it will. The results of studies in monkeys were discouraging, they note...
Authorities say this approach has been used in Africa, but to a limited extent. There have even been rumors of a black market for the blood of survivors. Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the W.H.O., said in a news conference last month that her organization would work to stamp out underground use of blood because such a therapy must be administered properly and safely.
The use of blood or plasma — either from recovered patients or from animals deliberately exposed to a pathogen — dates from the late 1800s, and for decades was a mainstay of treatment for infectious diseases. Emil von Behring, a German physician scientist, won the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901 for pioneering the serum approach for diphtheria.
◼ What you Need To Know About The Ebola Outbreak - NYT
That would be the blood of people who have been sickened by the Ebola virus but have since recovered. Their blood should contain antibodies that might help other patients fight off the infection.
The World Health Organization is making it a priority to try such convalescent blood or plasma, as it is called, and is talking with the affected countries about how to do it.
This week, the organization issued guidance on how to collect the blood and administer transfusions.
“The concept that this treatment could be efficacious is biologically plausible, as convalescent plasma has been used successfully for the treatment of a variety of infectious agents,” the W.H.O. guidance document says.
Plausibility, however, is not proof that such treatments would work for Ebola and some virologists doubt it will. The results of studies in monkeys were discouraging, they note...
Authorities say this approach has been used in Africa, but to a limited extent. There have even been rumors of a black market for the blood of survivors. Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the W.H.O., said in a news conference last month that her organization would work to stamp out underground use of blood because such a therapy must be administered properly and safely.
The use of blood or plasma — either from recovered patients or from animals deliberately exposed to a pathogen — dates from the late 1800s, and for decades was a mainstay of treatment for infectious diseases. Emil von Behring, a German physician scientist, won the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901 for pioneering the serum approach for diphtheria.
◼ What you Need To Know About The Ebola Outbreak - NYT
Labels:
Ebola,
Increasingly Desperate,
Innovation,
Liberia,
MEDICINE
NO on Prop 45: When liberal politicians and trial lawyers conspire to change laws to benefit themselves, you can bet that taxpayers will get the short end of the stick.
If you like Obamacare, you’re going to love Proposition 45, the ballot initiative that would give one politician-- liberal Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones--complete authority over health care costs and benefits for individuals and small businesses in California.
Worse, the trial lawyers who fund Jones’s campaigns wrote Prop 45 to help them make more money from frivolous lawsuits. When liberal politicians and trial lawyers conspire to change laws to benefit themselves, you can bet that taxpayers will get the short end of the stick.
It’s frightening to think that one liberal politician could literally make health care decisions for you and me. In addition to single-handedly setting rates, Jones would have power over anything affecting rates, including co-pays, deductibles and even which benefits insurance companies cover. Jones, a trial attorney himself who used to work for Janet Reno, has absolutely zero medical background, as far as I can tell. And he’d be making these decisions about my health care without any input from the medical community.
I’m sorry, but Dave Jones making decisions about my health care is beyond even my worst nightmares of the socialist nanny state that California is becoming. Treatment options should be between me and my doctors and nurses--not a Democrat politician and his trial attorney pals trying to make a buck....
That a politician has written an initiative to become a “czar” underscores how far Democrats are overreaching to expand their power in California. The last thing we need to do in California is give Democrats even more responsibility by creating new “czars” to limit the freedom and liberty of taxpayers....
The initiative is written by the same people who wrote 1988’s Proposition 103, which gave the insurance commissioner sole power over car insurance rates. Backed by Ralph Nader, the measure created “intervenor fees” for trial lawyers and consumer advocates to challenge insurance rates. These intervenors have made $11 million off these lawsuits--costs that, of course, are passed on to California drivers.
◼ Candidates use politics to become 'czars' - Steven Greenhut/San Diego Union-Tribune
Two prominent California politicians are using their current political powers to advance political changes — in one case a bill, in another an initiative — that would give them vast new powers if they win statewide office in November. Critics find it tacky at best.
◼ Congressman Tom McClintock says: Prop 45 – If You Thought Obamacare Was Bad: NO. This is a trial lawyers measure that give the state insurance commissioner the power to set health care rates. Sound good? Doctors and other health care providers are already opting out of Obamacare because of artificially low rates; this compounds the problem for California. The good news it you’ll have cheap health insurance. The bad news is you won’t have a lot of providers accepting it.
◼ CFRW Recommends a NO Vote.
Summary: Requires health insurance rate changes to be approved by Insurance Commissioner before taking effect. Requires sworn statement by health insurer as to accuracy of information submitted to Insurance Commissioner to justify rate changes. Provides for public notice, disclosure and hearing on health insurance rate changes, and subsequent judicial review. Does not apply to employer large group health plans. Prohibits health, auto and homeowners insurers from determining policy eligibility or rates based on lack of prior coverage or credit history.
Fiscal Impact: Increased state administrative costs ranging in the low millions to low tens of millions of dollars annually to regulate health insurance rates, funded with revenues collected from filing fees paid by health insurance companies.
Talking Points:
- A very dangerous measure that would place all insurance rate power in the hands of one politician, who would also have the decision making ability for your treatment options.
- Would create yet another costly state bureaucracy that would be funded by your higher healthcare costs.
- Sponsored by special interest lawyers who included a hidden provision allowing them to charge up to $675/hour and make tens of millions in fees off costly health care lawsuits.
Labels:
California,
California Initiatives,
Czars,
Obamacare,
Power Grab,
Prop 45,
VOTER GUIDE 2014
CFRW Ballot Recommendations
CFRW Ballot Recommendations
Below are the official CFRW Ballot Recommendations. Once again, it should be noted that our recommendations are just that- recommendations. It is the hope of the CFRW Voting Body that our Republican Women heed our recommendations but ultimately research these propositions on their own as well so that they can better educate other California voters. Every election is just as important as the last!
Prop 1 Water Bond.
Funding for Water Quality, Supply, Treatment, and Storage Projects:
Yes
Summary: Authorizes $7.12 billion in general obligation bonds for state water supply infrastructure projects, such as surface and groundwater storage; ecosystem and watershed protection and restoration; drinking water protection; water supply management; water recycling and advanced water treatment technology; and flood control. Reallocates $425 million of unused bond authority from prior water bond acts, for same purposes. Appropriates money from the General Fund to pay off bonds. Requires certain projects to provide matching funds from non-state sources in order to receive bond funds
Fiscal Impact: Increased state bond repayment costs averaging $360 million annually over the next 40 years. Savings to local governments related to water projects, likely averaging a couple hundred million dollars annually over the next few decades.
Talking Points:
- Republicans in the legislature fought hard to bring down the cost of this bond while increasing the amount of money allocated for surface storage projects to $2.7 billion.
- The bond is not perfect, and in fact still has a good amount of money allocated for some environmental “pet projects.” But Republicans must continue to fight for surface storage projects to be completed with this new bond. Living in a Democrat super majority state, we aren't going to have the "perfect water bond" come out of Sacramento. But this bond is a step in the right direction. If this bond does not pass and legislators must go back to the drawing board, we fear a worse bond will be brought back to the people of California, without the critical water storage the Republicans fought so hard to have included in this bond.
- Language for dam removal projects were removed from this bond and instead money will be allocated to fund two dam and reservoir projects, one in Colusa County and one in Fresno County. The Fresno County site, Temperance Flats, is especially important because our Central Valley Farmers have been relying so heavily on wells and groundwater that now that infrastructure is unstable. Our farmers need more surface storage to keep California growing.
- Again, it is important to note that this bond is not perfect and Republicans cannot rest on their laurels once it is passed. But we believe this is why it is so important to work hard to get Republicans elected to the legislature this cycle. The more Republicans we have protecting our interests in the Capitol, the better!
Prop 2 State Budget. Budget Stabilization Account.
Legislative Constitutional Amendment:
Yes
Summary: Requires annual transfer of 1.5% of general fund revenues to state budget stabilization account. Requires additional transfer of personal capital gains tax revenues exceeding 8% of general fund revenues to budget stabilization account and, under certain conditions, a dedicated K–14 school reserve fund. Requires that half the budget stabilization account revenues be used to repay state debts and unfunded liabilities. Allows limited use of funds in case of emergency or if there is a state budget deficit. Caps budget stabilization account at 10% of general fund revenues, directs remainder to infrastructure
Fiscal Impact: Some existing state debts would be paid down faster, resulting in long-term savings for the state. Changes in the level of state budget reserves, which would depend on the economy and future decisions by the Governor and the Legislature. Reserves kept by some school districts would be smaller
Talking Points:
- Another measure that Republicans worked hard to get to the ballot. Republicans have been working towards a rainy day fund for years. Every single Republican legislator in both the Senate and the Assembly voted in support of this proposition.
- Sets aside state revenues in a fund that cannot be used to further state spending in times of excess.
- Finally works to pay down state debt payments.
- Another caveat though, this bill must have Republican oversight once passed to make sure the fund is safe from greedy Democrat spending even after it is passed.
Prop 45 Approval of Healthcare
Insurance Rate Changes. Initiative Statute:
No
Summary: Requires health insurance rate changes to be approved by Insurance Commissioner before taking effect. Requires sworn statement by health insurer as to accuracy of information submitted to Insurance Commissioner to justify rate changes. Provides for public notice, disclosure and hearing on health insurance rate changes, and subsequent judicial review. Does not apply to employer large group health plans. Prohibits health, auto and homeowners insurers from determining policy eligibility or rates based on lack of prior coverage or credit history.
Fiscal Impact: Increased state administrative costs ranging in the low millions to low tens of millions of dollars annually to regulate health insurance rates, funded with revenues collected from filing fees paid by health insurance companies.
Talking Points:
- A very dangerous measure that would place all insurance rate power in the hands of one politician, who would also have the decision making ability for your treatment options.
- Would create yet another costly state bureaucracy that would be funded by your higher healthcare costs.
- Sponsored by special interest lawyers who included a hidden provision allowing them to charge up to $675/hour and make tens of millions in fees off costly health care lawsuits.
Prop 46 Drug and Alcohol Testing of Doctors.
Medical Negligence Lawsuits. Initiative Statute:
No
Summary: Requires drug and alcohol testing of doctors and reporting of positive test to the California Medical Board. Requires Board to suspend doctor pending investigation of positive test and take disciplinary action if doctor was impaired while on duty. Requires doctors to report any other doctor suspected of drug or alcohol impairment or medical negligence. Requires health care practitioners to consult state prescription drug history database before prescribing certain controlled substances. Increases $250,000 cap on pain and suffering damages in medical negligence lawsuits to account for inflation.
Fiscal Impact: Increased state and local government health care costs from raising the cap on medical malpractice damages, likely ranging from the tens of millions of dollars to several hundred million dollars annually.
Talking Points:
- It is no secret this measure was drafted by trial lawyers who stand to make millions with an increase on the “emotional pain and suffering” cap for medical negligence lawsuits
- This measure forces doctors and pharmacists to use a massive statewide database filled with Californians’ personal medical prescription information. A mandate government will find impossible to implement, and a database with no increased security standards to protect your personal prescription information from hacking and theft – none.
- If California’s medical liability cap goes up, you could also lose your trusted doctor. It’s true. Many doctors will be forced to leave California to practice in states where medical liability insurance is more affordable.
- A recent study found that this initiative will increase health care costs by $9.9 billion annually – or more than $1,000/year in higher health costs for a family of four
- It is deceptive. The drug testing of doctors portion of this measure was only added as an illusion to the real goal of this prop- to raise the cap on emotional pain and suffering
Prop 47 Criminal Sentences. Misdemeanor Penalties.
Initiative Statute:
No
Summary: Requires misdemeanor sentence instead of felony for petty theft, receiving stolen property, and forging/writing bad checks when value or amount involved is $950 or less. Requires misdemeanor sentence instead of felony for certain drug possession offenses. Allows felony sentence for these offenses if person has previous conviction for crimes such as rape, murder or child molestation or is a registered sex offender. Requires resentencing for persons serving felony sentences for these offenses unless court finds unreasonable public safety risk. Applies savings to mental health and drug treatment programs, K-12 schools, and crime victims.
Fiscal Impact: Unknown. Potential savings to criminal justice system. But also potential costs associated to recidivism rates.
Talking Points:
- Felons with prior convictions for armed robbery, kidnapping, car jacking, child abuse, residential burglary, arson, assault with a deadly weapon, and many other serious crimes are still eligible for early release under this prop.
- Judges must rule on a criminal’s early release based only on the most recent felony. Prior felony convictions will not affect a judge’s ruling except in extraordinary circumstances. This means that serious, violent felons will be released and there is little a judge can do about it.
- Under current law, stealing a gun is a felony, period. Prop 47 would redefine grand theft in such a way that theft of a firearm could only be considered a felony if the value of the gun is greater than $950. Almost all handguns (which are the most stolen kind of firearm) retail for well below $950. People don’t steal guns just so they can add to their gun collection. They steal guns to commit another crime. People stealing guns are protected under Proposition 47.
- Proposition 47 will reduce the penalty for possession of drugs used to facilitate date-rape to a simple misdemeanor. No matter how many times the suspected sexual predator has been charged with possession of date-rape drugs, it will only be a misdemeanor, and the judge will be forced to sentence them as if it were their very first time in court.
Prop 48 Referendum to Overturn Indian Gaming Compacts: Neutral or No Position
Summary: If the measure is approved by the state's voters, it will ratify AB 277 (Ch. 51, Stats. 2013), ratify two gaming compacts between California and, respectively, the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians, and the Wiyot Tribe, and exempt execution of the compacts, certain projects, and intergovernmental agreements from the California Environmental Quality Act. This measure is a veto referendum; this means that a "yes" vote is a vote to uphold or ratify the contested legislation (AB 277) that was enacted by the California State Legislature while a "no" vote is a vote to overturn AB 277.
Fiscal Impact: One-time payments between $16 million and $35 million from the North Fork tribe to local governments in the Madera County area to address costs related to the operation of a new casino.Annual payments over a 20-year period averaging around $10 million from the North Fork tribe to the state and local governments in the Madera County area to address costs related to the operation of a new casino. Increased revenue from economic growth in the Madera County area generally offset by revenue losses from decreased economic activity in surrounding areas
Talking Points:
- There are pros and cons to this proposition. That’s why the CFRW has taken a neutral position. It is our hope that the Republican Women research this prop and decide how this will effect them and the future of California.
- It will create thousands of jobs in a depressed economic area. Madera County is in desperate need of jobs.
- But it creates a precedence whereby Indians can game outside of their tribal land. This is currently unprecedented. The current Indian Gaming Pact with our state allows tribes to only game on their tribal land. This referendum would allow tribes to petition to the government to game (build casinos) outside of their tribal land.
Labels:
2014,
California,
California Initiatives,
Czars,
Obamacare,
Power Grab,
Prop 1,
Prop 2,
Prop 45,
Prop 46,
Prop 47,
Prop 48,
VOTER GUIDE 2014
California Drought – A Novel Statistical Analysis of Unrealistic Climate Models and of a Reanalysis That Should Not Be Equated with Reality
◼ link - Watts Up With That?
We discussed the recent high sea surface temperatures in the eastern extratropical North Pacific in the post On The Recent Record-High Global Sea Surface Temperatures – The Wheres and Whys.... The eastern extratropical North Pacific is the region with the recent persistent hot spot that contributed to the California drought. That region of the North Pacific cooled, not warmed, based on the linear trend from January 1989 to December 2012. That’s almost 2.5 decades where the sea surface temperatures cooled, before the unusual upswing....
And even with the addition of the most recent data, Figure 2, the sea surface temperatures of the eastern extratropical North Pacific show no warming since January 1989, based on the linear trend....
We also showed in that post that the sea surfaces of the North Pacific as a whole had not warmed from January 1989 to December 2012, the year before the unusual warming episode....
Let’s take a look at how well the models simulated those absences of warming. Wanna guess?
__________________
◼ The 2014/15 El Niño – Part 16 – Is There Still Hope for a Moderate El Niño?http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/30/what-california-can-learn-from-the-australian-drought-experience/
__________________
◼ What California can learn from the Australian drought experiencehttp://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/30/what-california-can-learn-from-the-australian-drought-experience/
We discussed the recent high sea surface temperatures in the eastern extratropical North Pacific in the post On The Recent Record-High Global Sea Surface Temperatures – The Wheres and Whys.... The eastern extratropical North Pacific is the region with the recent persistent hot spot that contributed to the California drought. That region of the North Pacific cooled, not warmed, based on the linear trend from January 1989 to December 2012. That’s almost 2.5 decades where the sea surface temperatures cooled, before the unusual upswing....
And even with the addition of the most recent data, Figure 2, the sea surface temperatures of the eastern extratropical North Pacific show no warming since January 1989, based on the linear trend....
We also showed in that post that the sea surfaces of the North Pacific as a whole had not warmed from January 1989 to December 2012, the year before the unusual warming episode....
Let’s take a look at how well the models simulated those absences of warming. Wanna guess?
◼ The 2014/15 El Niño – Part 16 – Is There Still Hope for a Moderate El Niño?http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/30/what-california-can-learn-from-the-australian-drought-experience/
◼ What California can learn from the Australian drought experiencehttp://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/30/what-california-can-learn-from-the-australian-drought-experience/
Labels:
Global Warming,
Science,
Truth
Obama’s Ebola Disaster
◼ Well, Obama has opened a new front on incompetence. - Larry Johnson/No Quarter
Well, Obama has opened a new front on incompetence. We will soon have almost 4000 troops from Africom in West Africa. This is a damn fool decision by Obama. The Army is not a social work outfit. They are not development specialists. They are not a medical expeditionary force. It is a military force designed to fight. They are supposed to be a killing machine. But not in Obama’s fantasy world.
The Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland has been ordered to prepare to receive soldiers with Ebola.... KEEP READING...
◼ U.S. Aid Effort in Liberia Barely Off the Ground as Ebola Rages - NYT
◼ TOP EBOLA VIROLOGIST: LIBERIA'S AIRPORT CHECKS 'USELESS' AND A 'DISASTER' - Breitbart
◼ EBOLA: Liberia descends into economic hell - Washington Post
◼ GENERAL: American Military to Quickly Ramp up Ebola Mission in Liberia - Yahoo
◼ Victims infecting family members, neighbors and others... Only 18% in Liberia being cared for in hospitals - NY Times
◼ In Liberia, Home Deaths Spread Circle of Ebola Contagion - NYT
Well, Obama has opened a new front on incompetence. We will soon have almost 4000 troops from Africom in West Africa. This is a damn fool decision by Obama. The Army is not a social work outfit. They are not development specialists. They are not a medical expeditionary force. It is a military force designed to fight. They are supposed to be a killing machine. But not in Obama’s fantasy world.
The Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland has been ordered to prepare to receive soldiers with Ebola.... KEEP READING...
◼ U.S. Aid Effort in Liberia Barely Off the Ground as Ebola Rages - NYT
◼ TOP EBOLA VIROLOGIST: LIBERIA'S AIRPORT CHECKS 'USELESS' AND A 'DISASTER' - Breitbart
◼ EBOLA: Liberia descends into economic hell - Washington Post
◼ GENERAL: American Military to Quickly Ramp up Ebola Mission in Liberia - Yahoo
◼ Victims infecting family members, neighbors and others... Only 18% in Liberia being cared for in hospitals - NY Times
◼ In Liberia, Home Deaths Spread Circle of Ebola Contagion - NYT
Labels:
Ebola,
Military,
President/Candidate Obama
Obama’s Éminence Grise
◼ As the Obama administration crashes and burns, insiders begin to blame Valerie Jarrett. - John Fund/National Review Online
...Chris Matthews of MSNBC, the former White House speechwriter who once rapturously recounted that he “felt this thrill going up my leg” as Obama spoke, didn’t hold back on Wednesday’s Hardball. “Let’s get tough here,” Matthews began, as he lambasted Obama for being “intellectually lazy” and “listening to the same voices all the time.” He even named names, saying that Obama had become “atrophied into that little world of people like Valerie Jarrett and Mrs. Obama.”
Jonathan Alter, a columnist for Bloomberg News and the author of a sympathetic book on Obama’s first term, reported that Jarrett is an unusual presence in the White House: “Staffers feared her, but didn’t like or trust her. At meetings she said little or nothing, instead lingering afterwards to express her views directly to the President, creating anxiety for her underlings and insulting them by saying, ‘I don’t talk just to hear myself talking.’”
Everyone expects a presidential spouse to weigh in on issues, but the reference to Valerie Jarrett, the White House senior adviser who mentored both the president and the first lady at the start of their careers in Chicago, is telling. Her outsize role in many presidential decisions is known to insiders, but she remains resolutely behind the scenes. So when Jarrett does enter the news, it’s significant, because it may provide a window into how the Obama White House really works....
Journalists who contacted the White House this week and asked to speak with Jarrett didn’t get very far. Maybe she’s decided to follow the advice of Greg Hinz and lie low for a while. But if journalists really want a fuller explanation for how the Obama administration has reached its current low ebb, perhaps they should continue to follow the threads of the Jarrett string that were revealed this week and see where those lead.
What's he talking about? Ask him yourself, October 12th, right here in Eureka. That's right, best-selling author John Fund is coming! ◼ October 12th Meet The Author: John Fund
5:30 p.m. No-Host Cocktails(éminence grise: a confidential agent; especially: one exercising unsuspected or unofficial power)
6:00 p.m. Roast Beef and Fried Chicken DINNER/BUFFET
7:00 p.m. Special Guest Speaker:
Author & FOX News Commentator JOHN FUND
8:00 p.m. GOP Fundraiser! Live Auction
Tickets: $50/person
MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS TODAY
Call Republican Headquarters: (707) 442-2259
or call (707) 442-2788 Annette de Modena
Labels:
Eureka,
FUNDRAISERS,
HGOP,
Humboldt County,
Humboldt GOP,
John Fund,
Local News
Antiquities Lost, Casualties of War
◼ In Syria and Iraq, Trying to Protect a Heritage at Risk - New York Times
Yasser Tabbaa, a specialist on Islamic art and architecture, remembers taking many trips to a 13th-century shrine dedicated to the Imam Awn al-Din, in Mosul in northern Iraq. The building was one of the few to survive Mongol invasion, never mind the destructive effects of weather and time. And this shrine had a stunning vaulted ceiling, like a honeycomb.
“It is a beautiful pyramidal tower at the edge of the Tigris,” said Mr. Tabbaa, who taught at New York University Abu Dhabi and lives in Ann Arbor, Mich.
His heart fell this summer, however, when he saw an online video of the shrine exploding in a cloud of dust, blown up by the militant group the Islamic State.
“It is just gone,” he said, his voice trailing off.
Tracking the cultural treasures of Syria and northern Iraq has become a heartbreaking task for archaeologists and antiquity scholars. And the list of destroyed, damaged or looted works has only grown longer as the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which seeks to create a caliphate, has pushed into northern Iraq. Sunni extremists like the Islamic State and others are deliberately wrecking shrines, statues, mosques, tombs and churches — anything they regard as idolatry....
But for all the looting damage, nothing scares scholars more than the Islamic State militants. “The speed with which they are moving into Iraq is really like the Mongols,” Ms. Canby of the Metropolitan Museum said. “It is brutal.”
The Islamic State and other extremists are motivated by the idea of punishing “shirk,” or idolatry. As a result, they have smashed Shia and Sufi sites, statues of poets, Mesopotamian relics from Assyria and Babylonia, and Sunni shrines that are outside the bounds of their narrow beliefs.
The destruction is also useful propaganda, proving their power, advertising their ideology and attracting international attention.
Yasser Tabbaa, a specialist on Islamic art and architecture, remembers taking many trips to a 13th-century shrine dedicated to the Imam Awn al-Din, in Mosul in northern Iraq. The building was one of the few to survive Mongol invasion, never mind the destructive effects of weather and time. And this shrine had a stunning vaulted ceiling, like a honeycomb.
“It is a beautiful pyramidal tower at the edge of the Tigris,” said Mr. Tabbaa, who taught at New York University Abu Dhabi and lives in Ann Arbor, Mich.
His heart fell this summer, however, when he saw an online video of the shrine exploding in a cloud of dust, blown up by the militant group the Islamic State.
“It is just gone,” he said, his voice trailing off.
Tracking the cultural treasures of Syria and northern Iraq has become a heartbreaking task for archaeologists and antiquity scholars. And the list of destroyed, damaged or looted works has only grown longer as the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which seeks to create a caliphate, has pushed into northern Iraq. Sunni extremists like the Islamic State and others are deliberately wrecking shrines, statues, mosques, tombs and churches — anything they regard as idolatry....
But for all the looting damage, nothing scares scholars more than the Islamic State militants. “The speed with which they are moving into Iraq is really like the Mongols,” Ms. Canby of the Metropolitan Museum said. “It is brutal.”
The Islamic State and other extremists are motivated by the idea of punishing “shirk,” or idolatry. As a result, they have smashed Shia and Sufi sites, statues of poets, Mesopotamian relics from Assyria and Babylonia, and Sunni shrines that are outside the bounds of their narrow beliefs.
The destruction is also useful propaganda, proving their power, advertising their ideology and attracting international attention.
Labels:
destruction,
History,
ISIS,
Islamic Caliphate,
Radical Islamists
The Real Effects of Measure R. (Eureka's Minimum Wage Hike Proposal)
The Real Effects of Measure R. Vote No on Measure R and PROTECT: • Senior Meal and Nutrition Programs • Youth Recreation Services • After School Programs • Childcare Services • Low Income Transportation Programs • Home Health Care
Friday, October 3, 2014
This is why Rand Paul is the future of the Republican Party.
◼ Rand Paul: "I don't want my guns registered in Washington or my marriage" - Reason Magazine
Via Hot Air comes this CNN report by Pete Hamby, who's following Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on his college tour. During a talk at the College of Charleston, Paul demonstrates why he is the future of the Republican Party.
Via Hot Air comes this CNN report by Pete Hamby, who's following Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on his college tour. During a talk at the College of Charleston, Paul demonstrates why he is the future of the Republican Party.
Labels:
Rand Paul,
Republicans
D.C. hospital admits patient showing Ebola symptoms
◼ A patient showing symptoms of Ebola has been admitted to a hospital in Washington, D.C., raising the prospect of a second case of the deadly virus in the United States. - Brian Hughes/Washington Examiner @BrianHughesDC
"We can confirm that a patient has been admitted to Howard University Hospital in stable condition, following travel to Nigeria and presenting with symptoms that could be associated with Ebola," said hospital spokeswoman Kerry-Ann Hamilton. “In an abundance of caution, we have activated the appropriate infection control protocols, including isolating the patient. Our medical team continues to evaluate and monitor progress in close collaboration with the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the Department of Health."
No additional information was released by the hospital...
"We can confirm that a patient has been admitted to Howard University Hospital in stable condition, following travel to Nigeria and presenting with symptoms that could be associated with Ebola," said hospital spokeswoman Kerry-Ann Hamilton. “In an abundance of caution, we have activated the appropriate infection control protocols, including isolating the patient. Our medical team continues to evaluate and monitor progress in close collaboration with the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the Department of Health."
No additional information was released by the hospital...
Labels:
disease,
Ebola,
Washington D.C.
Why Is It?
Making the email rounds:
1. America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.
2. Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.
3. They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.
4. Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.
5. The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.
6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries.
Think about it! And that, my friends, pretty much sums up the USA in the 21st Century.
These three, short sentences tell you a lot about the direction of our current government and cultural environment:
1. We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.
Funny how that works. And here's another one worth considering...
2. Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. But we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money? What's interesting is the first group "worked for" their money, but the second didn't.
3. Why are we cutting benefits for our veterans, no pay raises for our military and cutting our army to a level lower than before WWII, but we are not stopping the payments or benefits to illegal aliens.
◼ Barack Obama INSISTS that the 2014 election is all about *him*. - RedState
Cue the Democrats screaming "NOOOOOOO!" in slow-motion...
◼ Which brings us to: 28 words that Democrats really wish President Obama didn’t say today - WASHINGTONPOST.COM
"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."
Ted Cruz: They sure are, Mr. President. They sure are.
1. America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.
2. Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.
3. They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.
4. Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.
5. The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.
6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries.
Think about it! And that, my friends, pretty much sums up the USA in the 21st Century.
These three, short sentences tell you a lot about the direction of our current government and cultural environment:
1. We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.
Funny how that works. And here's another one worth considering...
2. Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. But we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money? What's interesting is the first group "worked for" their money, but the second didn't.
3. Why are we cutting benefits for our veterans, no pay raises for our military and cutting our army to a level lower than before WWII, but we are not stopping the payments or benefits to illegal aliens.
◼ Barack Obama INSISTS that the 2014 election is all about *him*. - RedState
Cue the Democrats screaming "NOOOOOOO!" in slow-motion...
◼ Which brings us to: 28 words that Democrats really wish President Obama didn’t say today - WASHINGTONPOST.COM
"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."
Ted Cruz: They sure are, Mr. President. They sure are.
Delay in Dallas Ebola Cleanup as Workers Balk at Task
◼ More than six months after an outbreak of Ebola began its rampage through West Africa, local and federal health officials have displayed an uneven and flawed response to the first case diagnosed in the United States. - New York Times
In the latest indication, state and local authorities confirmed Thursday that a week after a Liberian man fell ill with Ebola in Dallas, and four days after he was placed in isolation at a hospital here, the apartment where he was staying with four other people had not been sanitized and the sheets and dirty towels he used while sick remained in the home. County officials visited the apartment without protection Wednesday night.
The officials said it had been difficult to find a contractor willing to enter the apartment to clean it and remove bedding and clothes, which they said had been bagged in plastic. They said they now had hired a firm that would do the work soon. The Texas health commissioner, Dr. David Lakey, told reporters during an afternoon news conference that officials had encountered “a little bit of hesitancy” in seeking a firm to clean the apartment....
The woman who spoke to CNN said Mr. Duncan had been sweating profusely and suffering from diarrhea. He also vomited in the apartment complex parking lot, according to local health officials. Like all others exposed to Mr. Duncan, who is listed in serious condition, the woman has not shown Ebola symptoms.
The failure to sanitize his sheets and towels also revealed a broader problem in handling materials possible infected with the virus. Hospitals say they face a major challenge disposing of waste generated in the care of Ebola patients because two federal agencies have issued conflicting guidance on what they should do. As a result, hospitals say, waste may pile up and they cannot get rid of it....
The four family members who are living in the apartment — the woman, one of her children and two nephews — are among a handful who have been directed by the authorities to remain in isolation, after what officials said was a failure to comply with an order to stay home. Texas health officials hand-delivered orders to residents of the apartment at the Ivy, a complex north of downtown, requiring them not to leave their home and not to allow any visitors inside until their incubation periods have passed.
◼ Ordeal at the Dallas Ebola apartment moves on as TEN patients are classified 'high risk': Quarantined family moved to a secret location after Hazmat team arrived FIVE DAYS after victim was diagnosed - Louise Boyle for MailOnline and Dan Bates For Mailonline In Dallas, Texas and Wills Robinson for MailOnline
In the latest indication, state and local authorities confirmed Thursday that a week after a Liberian man fell ill with Ebola in Dallas, and four days after he was placed in isolation at a hospital here, the apartment where he was staying with four other people had not been sanitized and the sheets and dirty towels he used while sick remained in the home. County officials visited the apartment without protection Wednesday night.
The officials said it had been difficult to find a contractor willing to enter the apartment to clean it and remove bedding and clothes, which they said had been bagged in plastic. They said they now had hired a firm that would do the work soon. The Texas health commissioner, Dr. David Lakey, told reporters during an afternoon news conference that officials had encountered “a little bit of hesitancy” in seeking a firm to clean the apartment....
The woman who spoke to CNN said Mr. Duncan had been sweating profusely and suffering from diarrhea. He also vomited in the apartment complex parking lot, according to local health officials. Like all others exposed to Mr. Duncan, who is listed in serious condition, the woman has not shown Ebola symptoms.
The failure to sanitize his sheets and towels also revealed a broader problem in handling materials possible infected with the virus. Hospitals say they face a major challenge disposing of waste generated in the care of Ebola patients because two federal agencies have issued conflicting guidance on what they should do. As a result, hospitals say, waste may pile up and they cannot get rid of it....
The four family members who are living in the apartment — the woman, one of her children and two nephews — are among a handful who have been directed by the authorities to remain in isolation, after what officials said was a failure to comply with an order to stay home. Texas health officials hand-delivered orders to residents of the apartment at the Ivy, a complex north of downtown, requiring them not to leave their home and not to allow any visitors inside until their incubation periods have passed.
◼ Ordeal at the Dallas Ebola apartment moves on as TEN patients are classified 'high risk': Quarantined family moved to a secret location after Hazmat team arrived FIVE DAYS after victim was diagnosed - Louise Boyle for MailOnline and Dan Bates For Mailonline In Dallas, Texas and Wills Robinson for MailOnline
◼ Group are said to have moved to a luxury stand-alone house
◼ An unidentified doctor is said to have donated the property
◼ Hazmat teams decontaminated apartment where Thomas Duncan stayed
◼ They collected bed sheets and blankets used by the infected man
◼ Crews discovered that Duncan had slept on every mattress in the apartment
◼ Health officials say 10 people are considered to be 'high risk' because of their contact with the infected patient
Labels:
disease,
Ebola,
fail,
Quarantine
BREAKING>>> ISIS Beheads BRITISH HOSTAGE ALAN HENNING – Promises to Behead American Peter Kassi
◼ ISIS released video of the beheading of Alan Henning today. - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit
The Islamic State has released a videotaped beheading of #UK national #AlanHenning, promising to execute #US national #PeterKassig next.
— I ♥ Islamic State (@ONE_ummah1) October 3, 201480 people being monitored in Dallas area for Ebola; Update: 100?
◼ The net keeps getting cast wider and wider in the CDC effort to contain the nation’s first Ebola case in Dallas. Initially, only a handful of people had been under observation, comprising all those who had direct contact with the patient, now identified as Thomas Eric Duncan. Four are under quarantine orders, but the number of people under observation has grown to 80
Update: CNN now reports that the number of potential primary and secondary contacts has grown to 100:
Health officials are reaching out to as many as 100 people who may have had contact with the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S., a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of State Health Services said Thursday.
These are people who are still being questioned because they may have crossed paths with the patient either at the hospital, at his apartment complex or in the community.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we’re starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient’s home,” spokeswoman Carrie Williams said. “The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection.”
The number of direct contacts who have been identified and are being monitored right now is “more than 12,” a federal official told CNN on Thursday.
Update: CNN now reports that the number of potential primary and secondary contacts has grown to 100:
Health officials are reaching out to as many as 100 people who may have had contact with the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S., a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of State Health Services said Thursday.
These are people who are still being questioned because they may have crossed paths with the patient either at the hospital, at his apartment complex or in the community.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we’re starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient’s home,” spokeswoman Carrie Williams said. “The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection.”
The number of direct contacts who have been identified and are being monitored right now is “more than 12,” a federal official told CNN on Thursday.
Labels:
CDC,
disease,
Ebola,
Quarantine
Obama’s approval rating among Hispanics drops significantly
◼ President Obama’s approval rating among Hispanic voters has taken a tumble, dropping over 20 points since 2012. - voxxi
According to a new Gallup poll, 52 percent of Hispanics think that Obama is doing a good job, versus 74 percent of Hispanics directly following the President’s reelection in 2012....
Since Obama first took office in 2009, his approval rating among Hispanic voters has averaged 13 points above the national average. Part of the reason for this higher approval rating is that Hispanics tend to identify with the Democratic Party.
From January to August of this year, 49 percent of Hispanics claimed to be Democrats or leaning toward the Democratic Party, compared to 22 percent of Hispanics that identified with the Republican Party.
According to a new Gallup poll, 52 percent of Hispanics think that Obama is doing a good job, versus 74 percent of Hispanics directly following the President’s reelection in 2012....
Since Obama first took office in 2009, his approval rating among Hispanic voters has averaged 13 points above the national average. Part of the reason for this higher approval rating is that Hispanics tend to identify with the Democratic Party.
From January to August of this year, 49 percent of Hispanics claimed to be Democrats or leaning toward the Democratic Party, compared to 22 percent of Hispanics that identified with the Republican Party.
Labels:
Gallup,
Hispanic vote,
Polls,
President/Candidate Obama
Mona Charen: "Feminists have been lying to women for decades, thereby contributing to the “rape culture” they now decry."
◼ Women Lying to Women - Mona Charen/Townhall
There's really only one thing that progressives get wrong: human nature. This leads them into error on economics, where they imagine they can micromanage billions of individual decisions every day; foreign policy, in which they overestimate the appeal of "talks" and underestimate the ferocity and opportunism of aggressors; and sex, in which, well, where to begin?
...For all of their bold talk about empowerment, feminists seem always to demand that they not be forced to deal with reality. They preach to young women that they're just like men sexually, and when they find, to their horror, that lots of women are getting raped, they respond that women shouldn't be cautious about who they get drunk with; men should "be taught not to rape."
Imagine you're an administrator at a college near a really bad neighborhood. Do you warn the students about the nature of the neighborhood and urge them to travel in groups, stay away from certain streets after dark and keep their cellphones with them in case of danger? Or do you tell them the neighborhood is fine, just like the suburb in which they grew up? And when students get robbed, raped or murdered in those neighborhoods, do you insist that the message was fine, that we just have to teach people not to commit crimes?
Feminists have been lying to women for decades, thereby contributing to the "rape culture" they now decry.
There's really only one thing that progressives get wrong: human nature. This leads them into error on economics, where they imagine they can micromanage billions of individual decisions every day; foreign policy, in which they overestimate the appeal of "talks" and underestimate the ferocity and opportunism of aggressors; and sex, in which, well, where to begin?
...For all of their bold talk about empowerment, feminists seem always to demand that they not be forced to deal with reality. They preach to young women that they're just like men sexually, and when they find, to their horror, that lots of women are getting raped, they respond that women shouldn't be cautious about who they get drunk with; men should "be taught not to rape."
Imagine you're an administrator at a college near a really bad neighborhood. Do you warn the students about the nature of the neighborhood and urge them to travel in groups, stay away from certain streets after dark and keep their cellphones with them in case of danger? Or do you tell them the neighborhood is fine, just like the suburb in which they grew up? And when students get robbed, raped or murdered in those neighborhoods, do you insist that the message was fine, that we just have to teach people not to commit crimes?
Feminists have been lying to women for decades, thereby contributing to the "rape culture" they now decry.
We Gambled with Ebola and Lost
◼ Let us finally end the crazy “diversity” visa lottery. - Michelle Malkin/National Review
Ebola has reached our shores from Africa. Dozens of children are reportedly suffering paralysis from a deadly virus with unknown origins. Medical providers across the country have warned of a looming public-health crisis as communicable diseases spread unmonitored and uncontrolled. Other countries are cracking down. But America is stuck on open-borders stupid.
The Diversity Visa (DV) program, to take just one glaring example of government insanity, is still going.
On October 1, the State Department opened the annual DV random lottery to applicants from around the world. Yes, it’s completely random, like a Powerball drawing. Up to 55,000 lucky winners will snag permanent residency visas (green cards), which put them on the path to American citizenship ahead of millions of other foreigners patiently waiting to come to this country.
The green-card-lotto winners’ spouses and unmarried children under 21 all get golden tickets into the country too, no matter where they were born....
The Diversity Visa lottery program is a public-health hazard and a national-security risk that leaves our safety to random chance. But pleas to curtail or end the program since the 9/11 attacks have fallen on deaf ears.
In the wake of the Ebola scare (not to mention renewed jihadi threats from abroad), worried Americans are heading to the drugstore to stock up on facemasks, hand sanitizer, and gloves. New vaccines are in the works for emerging global contagions.
Unfortunately, there is no antidote for our government’s blind and deadly diversity worship. Political correctness is a plague on us all.
Labels:
Borders,
disease,
Diversity,
Ebola,
Illegal Immigration,
Michelle Malkin,
National Security
Tom McClintock November Ballot Recommendations
◼ From 4th District Congressman Tom McClintock
Prop 1 – Water Bond: YES. This is a long way from a perfect measure, but it’s as good as it gets in California these days: a $7.5 billion water bond that spends $2.7 billion for new water storage. If that sounds breathtakingly underwhelming, remember that’s $2.7 billion more than the multi-billions of dollars of water bonds that we’ve spent in recent years. Sadly, it doesn’t overhaul the environmental laws that vastly inflate costs and it squanders a great deal more that won’t be used for storage, but it is a step away from the lunacy of the green left (that adamantly opposes it) and this alone merits support.
Prop 2 - Stop Us Before We Screw Up Again: YES. This repeals Prop 58, a vat of Schwarzenegger snake-oil sold to voters as the panacea to the state’s budget woes. It wasn’t. (My I-told-you-so moment). Prop 58 promised an iron-clad reserve, but in reality, the governor could suspend it any time he wanted. He did. (Oops, I did it again). What I like most about Prop 2 is that to raid the required budget reserve, both the governor AND the legislature must agree and then, only for a specifically declared emergency. In a nutshell, it requires the legislature and governor to do what they did voluntarily during the Deukmejian era. Still plenty of loopholes, but better than what we have today.
Prop 45 – If You Thought Obamacare Was Bad: NO. This is a trial lawyers measure that give the state insurance commissioner the power to set health care rates. Sound good? Doctors and other health care providers are already opting out of Obamacare because of artificially low rates; this compounds the problem for California. The good news it you’ll have cheap health insurance. The bad news is you won’t have a lot of providers accepting it.
Prop 46 – If You Thought Prop 45 Was Bad: NO. Another trial lawyers measure that quadruples the amount they can get for pain and suffering awards. Prop. 45 means lower provider reimbursements and Prop. 46 means higher provider costs. It also requires drug testing for doctors, which is a stupid idea but I appreciate the poetic justice in making THEM pee into little cups for a change. Anyway, it won’t matter because your doctor will be out of state.
Prop 47 – Rose Bird’s Revenge: NO. We’ve gone overboard on some drug-related offenses, but this Proposition can only be described as a drug-induced hallucination. It reduces many grand-theft crimes to misdemeanors and would release an estimated 10,000 incarcerated criminals back on the streets. Basically, it is a burglar’s get-out-of-jail free card. Good news for alarm companies and the handful of 60’s radicals nostalgic for Rose Bird – bad news for the rest of us. Hide the silver.
Prop 48 – Freedom Works: YES. This ratifies Indian Gaming compacts for two tribes in economically depressed regions of the state that will be an economic boon to the struggling local communities there. It also cuts through environmental red tape that would otherwise delay these projects for years.
Prop 1 – Water Bond: YES. This is a long way from a perfect measure, but it’s as good as it gets in California these days: a $7.5 billion water bond that spends $2.7 billion for new water storage. If that sounds breathtakingly underwhelming, remember that’s $2.7 billion more than the multi-billions of dollars of water bonds that we’ve spent in recent years. Sadly, it doesn’t overhaul the environmental laws that vastly inflate costs and it squanders a great deal more that won’t be used for storage, but it is a step away from the lunacy of the green left (that adamantly opposes it) and this alone merits support.
Prop 2 - Stop Us Before We Screw Up Again: YES. This repeals Prop 58, a vat of Schwarzenegger snake-oil sold to voters as the panacea to the state’s budget woes. It wasn’t. (My I-told-you-so moment). Prop 58 promised an iron-clad reserve, but in reality, the governor could suspend it any time he wanted. He did. (Oops, I did it again). What I like most about Prop 2 is that to raid the required budget reserve, both the governor AND the legislature must agree and then, only for a specifically declared emergency. In a nutshell, it requires the legislature and governor to do what they did voluntarily during the Deukmejian era. Still plenty of loopholes, but better than what we have today.
Prop 45 – If You Thought Obamacare Was Bad: NO. This is a trial lawyers measure that give the state insurance commissioner the power to set health care rates. Sound good? Doctors and other health care providers are already opting out of Obamacare because of artificially low rates; this compounds the problem for California. The good news it you’ll have cheap health insurance. The bad news is you won’t have a lot of providers accepting it.
Prop 46 – If You Thought Prop 45 Was Bad: NO. Another trial lawyers measure that quadruples the amount they can get for pain and suffering awards. Prop. 45 means lower provider reimbursements and Prop. 46 means higher provider costs. It also requires drug testing for doctors, which is a stupid idea but I appreciate the poetic justice in making THEM pee into little cups for a change. Anyway, it won’t matter because your doctor will be out of state.
Prop 47 – Rose Bird’s Revenge: NO. We’ve gone overboard on some drug-related offenses, but this Proposition can only be described as a drug-induced hallucination. It reduces many grand-theft crimes to misdemeanors and would release an estimated 10,000 incarcerated criminals back on the streets. Basically, it is a burglar’s get-out-of-jail free card. Good news for alarm companies and the handful of 60’s radicals nostalgic for Rose Bird – bad news for the rest of us. Hide the silver.
Prop 48 – Freedom Works: YES. This ratifies Indian Gaming compacts for two tribes in economically depressed regions of the state that will be an economic boon to the struggling local communities there. It also cuts through environmental red tape that would otherwise delay these projects for years.
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Ballot Recommendations
◼ The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) has issued its final recommendation on state ballot measures, while the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Political Action Committee (HJTA-PAC) has released it candidate endorsements.
HJTA is advocating a yes vote on Proposition 2 to establish a prudent budget reserve and a no vote of no on Proposition 46 that could increase medical costs for average Californians.
The Association had taken no position on the Proposition 1 water bond. Taxpayers understand the state has serious water needs, however, Proposition 1 would add over $7 billion to what is already a level of debt that requires 7.2 percent of the general fund to be directed to debt repayment, leaving less money available for other programs. For more information please click here.
HJTA-PAC has issued its final candidate endorsements for the November 2014 election. A recommendation has not been made for every statewide office. The primary focus of the endorsements are state legislative races, because it is in the Legislature that most attacks on Proposition 13 originate. For a list of endorsed candidates and more information, please click here.
Additionally, as a service to voters, HJTA provides a summary and analysis of all statewide ballot measures as well as links for additional information.
◼ 2014 Ballot Initiatives
◼ FOLLOW Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association on FACEBOOK
HJTA is advocating a yes vote on Proposition 2 to establish a prudent budget reserve and a no vote of no on Proposition 46 that could increase medical costs for average Californians.
The Association had taken no position on the Proposition 1 water bond. Taxpayers understand the state has serious water needs, however, Proposition 1 would add over $7 billion to what is already a level of debt that requires 7.2 percent of the general fund to be directed to debt repayment, leaving less money available for other programs. For more information please click here.
HJTA-PAC has issued its final candidate endorsements for the November 2014 election. A recommendation has not been made for every statewide office. The primary focus of the endorsements are state legislative races, because it is in the Legislature that most attacks on Proposition 13 originate. For a list of endorsed candidates and more information, please click here.
Additionally, as a service to voters, HJTA provides a summary and analysis of all statewide ballot measures as well as links for additional information.
◼ 2014 Ballot Initiatives
◼ FOLLOW Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association on FACEBOOK
The overriding impression is of disarray, confusion, bad management, failed communication, anomie, disillusion, corruption, and secrecy. But do not worry. Things are under control.
◼ The Case for Panic - Matthew Continetti/Washington Free Beacon
...The spin began soon after the threat was isolated. Information was selectively leaked. Half-truths and untruths were uttered. Responsibility was avoided; privileges and credentials asserted; authority reasserted. Trust us. Remain calm. Don’t panic.
This is the template of recent events. A mental case jumps the White House fence. He makes it to the East Room before he’s tackled by an off-duty Secret Service agent. Initial statements turn out to be misleading or false. We discover that lapses in security are much worse than previously understood, that in recent memory the White House was sprayed with bullets, and that an armed man with a criminal record rode in an elevator with the president. The official in charge of the Secret Service, promoted for reasons of affirmative action, resigns hours after the White House expresses its confidence in her abilities. The overriding impression is of disarray, confusion, bad management, failed communication, anomie, disillusion, corruption, and secrecy. But do not worry. Things are under control.
The elevator? It was in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where the president told the American people that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is not a threat to our country. President Obama said the chances of Ebola appearing in the United States are “extremely low.” If a carrier somehow finds his way to the 50 states, “We have world-class facilities and professionals ready to respond. And we have effective surveillance mechanisms in place.” Two weeks later, as Byron York points out, the president was proven utterly wrong.
It is the same story as the fence-jumper: lax security, missed opportunities, hollow defenses....
The system can withstand only so many shocks. For the last two years it has suffered nothing but blows, traumas, national and international concussions. The response by our government has been denial and delusion. But that has further alienated the public, and it won’t be long before things get really weird. Maybe it is time for the political class to panic, too.
Know hope? That’s passé.
Know fear.
...The spin began soon after the threat was isolated. Information was selectively leaked. Half-truths and untruths were uttered. Responsibility was avoided; privileges and credentials asserted; authority reasserted. Trust us. Remain calm. Don’t panic.
This is the template of recent events. A mental case jumps the White House fence. He makes it to the East Room before he’s tackled by an off-duty Secret Service agent. Initial statements turn out to be misleading or false. We discover that lapses in security are much worse than previously understood, that in recent memory the White House was sprayed with bullets, and that an armed man with a criminal record rode in an elevator with the president. The official in charge of the Secret Service, promoted for reasons of affirmative action, resigns hours after the White House expresses its confidence in her abilities. The overriding impression is of disarray, confusion, bad management, failed communication, anomie, disillusion, corruption, and secrecy. But do not worry. Things are under control.
The elevator? It was in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where the president told the American people that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is not a threat to our country. President Obama said the chances of Ebola appearing in the United States are “extremely low.” If a carrier somehow finds his way to the 50 states, “We have world-class facilities and professionals ready to respond. And we have effective surveillance mechanisms in place.” Two weeks later, as Byron York points out, the president was proven utterly wrong.
It is the same story as the fence-jumper: lax security, missed opportunities, hollow defenses....
The system can withstand only so many shocks. For the last two years it has suffered nothing but blows, traumas, national and international concussions. The response by our government has been denial and delusion. But that has further alienated the public, and it won’t be long before things get really weird. Maybe it is time for the political class to panic, too.
Know hope? That’s passé.
Know fear.
Labels:
#FAIL,
COVERUP,
Incompetence,
Lies,
President/Candidate Obama,
White House
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Montel Williams Pleads With Obama To “Make The Call Today” For Imprisoned Marine
◼ Talk show host Montel Williams urged President Obama to “make the call” to Mexican President Enrique Nieto to release imprisoned Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday. “It is, right now, 11:05, if this hearing’s gonna stop in the next 10 minutes, I think the president needs to pick up the phone in 15,” Williams said. “Make the call, make the call today.” - CV
◼ Montel Williams Meets with Veterans Obama Snubbed after They Marched 300 Miles to White House - CNS
The Washington Free Beacon reported that Marine vets Terry Sharp and Allen Brown led a large crowd of supporters to the White House on September 25 only to find that no White House officials greeted them or invited them inside.
However, their campaign for the release of Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi did not go unnoticed by other high-profile officials.
Montel Williams, known mostly as a talk show host, is actually a 22-year veteran of the navy and is a staunch advocate for veterans.
"The president's reassurances have turned out to be false."
(Note: You should see images in the Tweets embedded below. If you're using Safari, and don't see the images in the Twitter messages, refresh your page. Safari's energy saver feature doesn't load images unless you refresh)
◼ In just two weeks, Obama proven completely wrong about Ebola - Byron York/Washington Examiner @ByronYork
◼ Flashback: Senator Obama rips Bush for being unprepared for avian flu epidemic
◼ Ebola patient “throwing up all over the place” outside before admitted to Texas hospital - The Right Scoop
◼ "His whole family was screaming. He got outside and he was throwing up all over the place," resident Mesud Osmanovic, 21, said on Wednesday, describing the chaotic scene before the man was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday where he is in serious condition. - Reuters
◼ News chopper caught Ebola clean-up crew; Um. Notice anything missing? (It’s enraging) [photo] - Twitchy
◼ ‘Trying to CAUSE epidemic?’ This food delivery to Ebola family is truly unbelievable [photos] - Twitchy
◼ In just two weeks, Obama proven completely wrong about Ebola - Byron York/Washington Examiner @ByronYork
Hi @washingtonpost, see CDC guidance on risk, ur article not accurate http://t.co/Qzu1HZgDp5 Here's how you get Ebola http://t.co/ZJifMclkAG
— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) October 2, 2014◼ Flashback: Senator Obama rips Bush for being unprepared for avian flu epidemic
At that time, then-Senator Barack Obama scolded the Bush administration on the Senate floor, and quarterbacked a protest letter from his fellow Democrats over the slow response and lack of preparedness by the White House...◼ Obama 2005: The Avian Flu Is Very Dangerous and It's Only A Matter of Time Before It Comes to America - Ace Of Spades
Senator Obama sure seemed to take the danger of pandemics more seriously when he could lodge his concerns as a partisan criticism of another president.◼ The brunt of Obama's criticism reads like it could be leveled against his own handling of the current Ebola outbreak... - Grabien
President Obama is a lot more relaxed about global pandemics, for some reason.
Incidentally, of course, the avian flu never really hit the United States in any kind of major way.
I'm focusing on Obama's noting that a pandemic is only one plane ticket away from the United States -- something he knew in 2005, but seems to have forgotten by 2014, when he deemed Ebola's entry into the US "unlikely."
Also note that when Obama spoke (and perhaps still today) the Avian Flu could not be spread from one human to another.
Ebola obviously can be spread from human to human -- thus making it more likely to be spread via the airplane route.
◼ Ebola patient “throwing up all over the place” outside before admitted to Texas hospital - The Right Scoop
◼ "His whole family was screaming. He got outside and he was throwing up all over the place," resident Mesud Osmanovic, 21, said on Wednesday, describing the chaotic scene before the man was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday where he is in serious condition. - Reuters
◼ News chopper caught Ebola clean-up crew; Um. Notice anything missing? (It’s enraging) [photo] - Twitchy
Terrific "@JohnGGalt: BREAKING PHOTO: Chopper 5 from @wfaachannel8 showing how Ebola vomit was cleaned up pic.twitter.com/lXzgujAKZn”
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) October 2, 2014UM, CALL ME CRAZY, BUT cleaning up Ebola vomit with a pressure washer seems like a lousy idea... http://t.co/7l7fSBlm1k via @instapundit
— Instapundit.com (@instapundit) October 2, 2014@wfaachannel8 #EbolaQandA This Vomit from an Ebola Patient is being sprayed everywhere! Does it become diluted?
— Jim Rogers (@UncleJimsWorld) October 2, 2014If there's chance one drop of blood or puke is on that sidewalk, THERE SHOULD BE HAZMAT SUITS. This isn't a fucking joke.
— RB (@RBPundit) October 2, 2014◼ ‘Trying to CAUSE epidemic?’ This food delivery to Ebola family is truly unbelievable [photos] - Twitchy
I don't understand why Duncan's family is quarantined in a contaminated apartment. Boggles the mind.
— Lexi Mainland (@lexinyt) October 3, 2014#EbolaDallas food boxes dropped at front door. Supplies for next 3weeks. pic.twitter.com/HoP0xnrJZ6
— STEVE PICKETT (@STEVEPICK11) October 2, 2014@connortryan @nypost Shouldn't this be done by someone at the State's Health Services Department? Shouldn't he have a mask on?
— Tina Rodriguez (@TinaHMRod) October 2, 2014BESIDES EBOLA: CHILD DIES FROM MYSTERY VIRUS...
◼ Rhode Island Child Dies From Complications Of Enterovirus That Has Been Affecting Kids Nationwide - CBS Connecticut/AP
◼ First Maine child tests positive for mystery virus - Main Sun Journal
◼ Maine sees huge growth in Aslyum-seekers - PORTLAND PRESS HERALD
◼ UPDATE: Over 20 Kids Contract Mystery Polio-Like Illness in CA - NBC Bay Area
◼ Top US Doctor: Illegal Immigrant Children May Be Spreading Mysterious Respiratory Disease (Video) - Gatway Pundit
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the virus has been confirmed in 472 people in 41 states and the District of Columbia. So far, no deaths have been attributed to the virus.◼ Linked to 4 deaths? - MIKE STOBBE/AP MEDICAL WRITER
The virus can cause mild to severe illness, with the worst cases needing life support for breathing difficulties. The strain isn’t new but it’s rarely seen.
In Colorado health officials are investigating nine cases of muscle weakness or paralysis due to the virus.
The virus was also found in three other patients who died in September, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC declined to release any other details about those deaths.◼ Immigration agent says authorities ignoring health warning over illegals' relocations - Ryan Lovelace/National Review
◼ First Maine child tests positive for mystery virus - Main Sun Journal
◼ Maine sees huge growth in Aslyum-seekers - PORTLAND PRESS HERALD
◼ UPDATE: Over 20 Kids Contract Mystery Polio-Like Illness in CA - NBC Bay Area
Berkeley Girl Among California Children Who Contracted Polio-Like Illness
◼ Top US Doctor: Illegal Immigrant Children May Be Spreading Mysterious Respiratory Disease (Video) - Gatway Pundit
Dr. Jane Orient, the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, told Laura Ingraham that illegal immigrant children could be spreading dangerous viruses in the US. Dr. Orient says the illegal children may not have been screened or quarantined thoroughly.◼ Enterovirus D68: Eight California cases of rare illness; some patients suffer paralysis - Susan Abram/Los Angeles News Group via Times-Standard
Labels:
#FAIL,
Borders,
CDC,
Children,
COVERUP,
disease,
Healthcare,
Illegal Immigration,
Scandals
It looks like a GOP wave; the question is how far it goes
◼ Republicans seem to be pulling away in the race to win a majority in the U.S. Senate. At least this week. - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner @michaelbarone
Labels:
2014,
2014 Midterms,
Republicans,
Senate
ISIS beheads three women
◼ ISIS behead five Kurdish fighters, including three women, whose severed heads are then shared online by terror fanatics - Daily Mail UK
Images posted on social media networks show women's heads placed on a cement block, said to be in the northern Syrian city of Jarablous, which is held by militants.
Women fight alongside men in the Kurdish People's Protection Units, known as the YPG, which is the official armed wing of the main Kurdish political group in Syria.
Kurdish forces have been locked in fierce clashes with Islamic State militants in and around Kobani since the extremist group launched an assault in mid-September.
The fighting has created one of the single largest exoduses in Syria's civil war, with more than 160,000 people fleeing into Turkey, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said yesterday.
Images posted on social media networks show women's heads placed on a cement block, said to be in the northern Syrian city of Jarablous, which is held by militants.
Women fight alongside men in the Kurdish People's Protection Units, known as the YPG, which is the official armed wing of the main Kurdish political group in Syria.
Kurdish forces have been locked in fierce clashes with Islamic State militants in and around Kobani since the extremist group launched an assault in mid-September.
The fighting has created one of the single largest exoduses in Syria's civil war, with more than 160,000 people fleeing into Turkey, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said yesterday.
Labels:
Beheading,
Horror,
ISIS,
Kurdish fighters,
Radical Islamists,
Syria,
Women in the News
Caliphate of Fear: The Curse of the Islamic State
◼ Images of Yazidis fleeing parts of Iraq and Syria have shocked the world and the battle against the jihadists with the Islamic State has united Americans, Europeans, Kurds and Iranians. Can the Islamists be stopped? = Der Spiegel Online
In Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State's "caliphate" has already become a reality. All women in the city are required to wear the niqab veil and pants are banned. Thieves have their hands hacked off and opponents are publicly crucified or beheaded, with the images of these horrific acts then posted on social networks.
The few hair salons that are still open are required to black out the pictures of women on the packaging for hair dye solutions. Weddings are only permitted to take place without music. And at livestock markets, the hindquarters of goats and sheep must be covered in order to prevent men from viewing their genitalia and having uncomely thoughts.
Any person caught out on the street during the five daily prayer times is risking his or her life.
The jihadists with the Islamic State, or IS, are acting out their fantasies of omnipotence in the name of God. They're murdering, torturing and forcing families to give their daughters away for marriage to Islamist fighters coming in from abroad. One girl whose family agreed to marry her off took her own life....
EBOLA IN AMERICA
◼ AMERICA’S FIRST TEST AGAINST EBOLA IS NOT GOING WELL - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o
◼ DETAILS EMERGE: U.S. Patient Aided Pregnant Liberian, Then Took Ill - NY Times
◼ Ebola exposes the fact that the open border game that the administration thought was so politically clever is potentially lethal. Words don’t mean anything to gangsters or viruses. So, too, are the forests of inhibitions and hesitations that have grown up in our modern climate of superstitious fear. Zero-tolerance means follow the form, not logic. - Richard fernandez/PJMedia
◼ United Airlines scrambles to alert HUNDREDS of passengers who came in contract with Ebola patient as it is revealed he entered U.S. at Washington Dulles before flying to Dallas - MICHAEL ZENNIE FOR MAILONLINE and REUTERS
◼ IMMIGRATION EXPERT: OBAMA ADMIN RESPONSIBLE FOR LETTING EBOLA PATIENT INTO U.S. - Matthew Boyle/Breitbart
◼ Obama Told Us Ebola in America was "Unlikely" - RUSH
◼ WH: 'Screening Procedures In Place At Our Border' - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard
We’ve been told for months that our medical system and government agencies were ready to pounce on Ebola the instant that good-for-nothing virus arrived on our shores. Show your face in America and you’re going down, Ebola! And yet, when it finally arrived, the very first case involved a man who presented symptoms consistent with Ebola, and told doctors he had just returned from the hot zone, but the hospital gave him an arm full of antibiotics and sent him on his merry without bothering to screen him.
...Patient One had a three-hour layover at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. before jetting on to Dallas, and was not detected. The Centers for Disease Control decided to notify United Airlines but not the Ebola victim’s fellow passengers, because he didn’t manifest symptoms until after he had been in the United States for a few days, so the disease probably wasn’t infectious while he was in transit. And yet, for some reason, even through there’s absolutely no risk whatsoever, the CDC still assigned someone to research all of the other passengers…
Fox News has a report that he was “seen vomiting on the ground outside an apartment complex as he was bundled into an ambulance,” while his screaming family watched, in a scene straight out of a horror movie. The family has ordered to stay home until the Ebola incubation period has passed, and will face criminal charges if they disobey. “A security officer blocked the entrance to the complex, with instructions only to let residents in and out,” says the Fox report. Is that guy also supposed to make sure nobody from the potentially infected family disobeys the orders and leaves? How about the people they’ve come into contact with already?
◼ DETAILS EMERGE: U.S. Patient Aided Pregnant Liberian, Then Took Ill - NY Times
◼ Ebola exposes the fact that the open border game that the administration thought was so politically clever is potentially lethal. Words don’t mean anything to gangsters or viruses. So, too, are the forests of inhibitions and hesitations that have grown up in our modern climate of superstitious fear. Zero-tolerance means follow the form, not logic. - Richard fernandez/PJMedia
Logic and common sense have to make a comeback.◼ Man with Ebola flew roundabout trip to US - ABC WFAA
Details of the man's 28-hour trip from western Africa emerged Wednesday. He flew on two airlines, took three flights, and had lengthy airport layovers before reaching Texas on Sept. 20.◼ Why the CDC Won't Release the Ebola Patient's Flight Itinerary - ABC
Still, federal officials say other passengers on the flights are at no risk of infection because the man had no symptoms at the time of his trip.
The CDC said Tuesday that the passengers who unknowingly traveled with the man need not be concerned because he was not contagious while he was on the plane.
"The ill person did not exhibit symptoms of Ebola during the flights from West Africa and CDC does not recommend that people on the same commercial airline flights undergo monitoring, as Ebola is only contagious if the person is experiencing active symptoms," the agency said in a statement Tuesday.
◼ United Airlines scrambles to alert HUNDREDS of passengers who came in contract with Ebola patient as it is revealed he entered U.S. at Washington Dulles before flying to Dallas - MICHAEL ZENNIE FOR MAILONLINE and REUTERS
Thomas Eric Duncan flew from Liberia to Brussels, then boarded United Airlines Flight 951 to Washington Dulles International Airport◼ The Centers for Disease Control Changed Its Ebola Prevention Page on September 19, 2014. Why? - PJMEdia
From Dulles, he flew on United Flight 822 to Dallas/Fort Worth
U.S. officials had refused to release Duncan's flight details, but United Airlines chose to make his itinerary public
Health officials claim there is no risk to Duncan's fellow passengers
◼ IMMIGRATION EXPERT: OBAMA ADMIN RESPONSIBLE FOR LETTING EBOLA PATIENT INTO U.S. - Matthew Boyle/Breitbart
◼ Obama Told Us Ebola in America was "Unlikely" - RUSH
◼ WH: 'Screening Procedures In Place At Our Border' - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard
Labels:
disease,
Ebola,
MEDICINE,
National Security,
President/Candidate Obama,
Quarantine
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Looks like Judge White served up some hot and spicy disapproval of ObamaCare and its defenders.
◼ ANOTHER COURT DECISION AGAINST SUBSIDIES FOR THE FEDERAL OBAMACARE EXCHANGE - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o
The bell might be tolling for ObamaCare, as another federal judge rolls into what is broadly referred to as the “Halbig” controversy, after the first court decision against subsidies for federal exchange customers. A second decision in a different circuit court ruled the opposite way. Now the tie has been broken by a federal judge ruling in favor of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt against those subsidies.
It will all most likely be settled at the Supreme Court. The significance of today’s ruling might be that it’s now much harder to keep the case away from the Supremes, and they’ll have two decisions against ObamaCare to consider. The Pruitt case still has to pass through one more layer of federal review, and the Obama-packed D.C. Circuit Court might kill the Halbig decision of a three-judge panel, with a review from the full bench. Maybe these two anti-ObamaCare rulings can still be tackled before they make it to SCOTUS, but the odds are shifting against it. There’s actually one more related court challenge creeping toward Washington, Indiana vs. IRS, which recently survived a dismissal challenge from the Internal Revenue Service.
The bell might be tolling for ObamaCare, as another federal judge rolls into what is broadly referred to as the “Halbig” controversy, after the first court decision against subsidies for federal exchange customers. A second decision in a different circuit court ruled the opposite way. Now the tie has been broken by a federal judge ruling in favor of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt against those subsidies.
It will all most likely be settled at the Supreme Court. The significance of today’s ruling might be that it’s now much harder to keep the case away from the Supremes, and they’ll have two decisions against ObamaCare to consider. The Pruitt case still has to pass through one more layer of federal review, and the Obama-packed D.C. Circuit Court might kill the Halbig decision of a three-judge panel, with a review from the full bench. Maybe these two anti-ObamaCare rulings can still be tackled before they make it to SCOTUS, but the odds are shifting against it. There’s actually one more related court challenge creeping toward Washington, Indiana vs. IRS, which recently survived a dismissal challenge from the Internal Revenue Service.
Labels:
Court Decisions,
Obamacare
Left-Leaning Former CNN Host Piers Morgan Pens Surprisingly Scathing Op-Ed on How ‘Obama Committed Professional Suicide’ This Week
◼ Morgan, who was recently named editor-at-large of MailOnline in the U.S., accused the president of managing to “single-handedly alienate 200,000 employees in the American intelligence agencies by going on 60 Minutes and ruthlessly chucking them all under a bus over the rise of terror group ISIS.” - The Blaze
Citing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Morgan slammed Obama for saying “they” instead of “we” when discussing the failure of the United States to effectively respond to the Islamic State terror threat.
“A more shameless, reprehensible display of buck-passing it would be hard to find from a sitting President,” he wrote.
He also referred to a “theory” in politics that “once a leader has fired 50 or more people from his or her administration, he or she is finished.”
◼ A slapdash Secret Service detail isn't what's wrong with the White House - the real scandal is a President who is so complacent about protecting Americans - Piers Morgan/Daily Mail UK
All that will happen now is that those maligned intelligence agencies will exact cold-blooded revenge on Obama by drip-feeding negative stories about him until he’s gone.
It’s what they do.
The truth is that Obama is the one who underestimated ISIS, plunging his head ostrich-like into the sand and hoping they would go away without having to do anything to actually make them go away.
There were clear, unambiguous public warnings made nearly a year ago in front of the Foreign Affairs Committee that ISIS was on the march in Syria and Iraq.
But perhaps Obama missed them.
Hardly surprising when we discover yesterday that he has only attended 42.1 percent of his Presidential Daily intelligence briefings.
No wonder the Secret Service gets complacent when The Boss exudes complacency from every pore.
Citing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Morgan slammed Obama for saying “they” instead of “we” when discussing the failure of the United States to effectively respond to the Islamic State terror threat.
“A more shameless, reprehensible display of buck-passing it would be hard to find from a sitting President,” he wrote.
He also referred to a “theory” in politics that “once a leader has fired 50 or more people from his or her administration, he or she is finished.”
◼ A slapdash Secret Service detail isn't what's wrong with the White House - the real scandal is a President who is so complacent about protecting Americans - Piers Morgan/Daily Mail UK
All that will happen now is that those maligned intelligence agencies will exact cold-blooded revenge on Obama by drip-feeding negative stories about him until he’s gone.
It’s what they do.
The truth is that Obama is the one who underestimated ISIS, plunging his head ostrich-like into the sand and hoping they would go away without having to do anything to actually make them go away.
There were clear, unambiguous public warnings made nearly a year ago in front of the Foreign Affairs Committee that ISIS was on the march in Syria and Iraq.
But perhaps Obama missed them.
Hardly surprising when we discover yesterday that he has only attended 42.1 percent of his Presidential Daily intelligence briefings.
No wonder the Secret Service gets complacent when The Boss exudes complacency from every pore.
Labels:
#FAIL,
Incompetence,
Intelligence,
ISIS,
President/Candidate Obama
EBOLA PANIC: PARENTS PULL CHILDREN FROM SCHOOL. State Dept ordering 160,000 hazmat suits
DRUDGE:
EBOLA PATIENT HAD CONTACT WITH STUDENTS...
Told hospital on first visit was from LIBERIA -- then SENT HOME!
SECOND POSSIBLE CASE IN DALLAS...
At Least 12 Thought to Be Exposed...
Airlines scramble to track down HUNDREDS who came in contact...
US Visas Held By 13,500 People In Three Ebola Countries...
TOP DOC: More will be infected...
'Preppers' stock up on supplies...
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EBOLA PATIENT HAD CONTACT WITH STUDENTS...
Told hospital on first visit was from LIBERIA -- then SENT HOME!
SECOND POSSIBLE CASE IN DALLAS...
At Least 12 Thought to Be Exposed...
Airlines scramble to track down HUNDREDS who came in contact...
US Visas Held By 13,500 People In Three Ebola Countries...
TOP DOC: More will be infected...
'Preppers' stock up on supplies...
Airlines scramble after HUNDREDS passengers had contact with on the THREE legs of his journey from Liberia to Dallas http://t.co/wHqqwuLxYs
— slone (@slone) October 1, 20145 students attended four different Dallas schools this week after possibly being in close contact with the Ebola patient over the weekend
— slone (@slone) October 1, 2014Rick Perry reveals schoolchildren from FOUR different schools exposed & 18 Americans could be infected http://t.co/Y1p64VeE4J #tcot
— slone (@slone) October 1, 2014Immigration Expert: Obama Admin Responsible for Letting Ebola Patient into U.S. http://t.co/c3HfxPIm70 via @BreitbartNews
— PubliusNV (@PubliusNV) October 1, 2014Industrial clothing manufacturer reveals State Dept ordering 160,000 hazmat suits http://t.co/G7COp1UtPC #Ebola pic.twitter.com/rEbcAsDlu8
— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) October 1, 2014(Note: If you're using Safari, and don't see the images in the Twitter messages, refresh your page. Safari's energy saver feature doesn't load images unless you refresh)
Labels:
Ebola
The Ebola case in Dallas is the latest example of our living in an era of pervasive incompetence and dishonesty:
◼ EBOLA DOES DALLAS - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o
The victim is a traveler from Liberia who was in the U.S. to visit relatives, according to the UK Daily Mail. And yes, there’s a chance he infected others, because when he first visited the hospital, they thought he had the flu, so they shot him up with antibiotics and sent him home:...
It was not until two days later that the man was admitted to the Dallas hospital and put in isolation, it has been reported.Why, yes, that’s an excellent question. Why wasn’t a man from freaking Liberia who turned up at the hospital with flu-like symptoms – but was actually carrying Ebola in its most active, contagious stage – screened more carefully for Ebola? Follow-up question: why are we allowing air travelers from the ebola hot zone to roam freely in the U.S. without the most careful testing?
It raises the frightening prospect that he was mixing freely with other people for a full two days while showing symptoms of the virus – the time when Ebola is most contagious....
Scott Gordon, a reporter for KXAS, tweeted ‘Hospital reviewing why patient wasn’t properly diagnosed on Friday when he was evaluated and sent home. Dismissed with antibiotics.’
This is one of the reasons Americans are so worried about Ebola: we live in a sad-sack can’t-do era of pervasive incompetence and dishonesty. After watching mega-failures like ObamaCare and the Department of Veterans Affairs… after watching the President of the United States lie on national television in order to evade responsibility for his own foreign policy decisions… after watching everyone from Attorney General Eric Holder, to IRS officials, to the director of the Secret Service follow Obama’s lead, using lies and obfuscation to avoid the consequences of ineptitude and abuse of power… we have every reason to believe the authorities could screw up the response to Ebola, and even more reason to think they’ll be less than honest with us if that happens.
Update: Some good news from Reuters: the city of Dallas says all three members of the ambulance crew exposed to the Ebola victim have tested negative for the virus.
◼ Dallas’ patient zero came to this country from Liberia knowing he had been closely exposed to an Ebola patient in his home country - Neoneocon
◼ U.S. Patient Aided Pregnant Liberian, Then Took Ill. Liberian Officials Identify Ebola Victim in Texas as Thomas Eric Duncan - New York Times
...In a sign of how furiously the disease can spread, an ambulance had come to their house on Wednesday to pick up Sonny Boy. Another ambulance picked up a woman and her daughter from the same area, and a team of body collectors came to retrieve the body of yet another woman — all four appeared to have been infected in a chain reaction started by Marthalene Williams.
A few minutes after the ambulance left, the parents got a call telling them that Sonny Boy had died on the way to the hospital....
Texas, which has no income tax, now has a record $38 billion in education funds in reserve. Why? Because of the state's booming oil and gas industry. There's nothing but politics stopping California from doing the same.
◼ Texas school fund now worth nation-high $37.7B - Houston Chronicle via Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
A fund Texas uses to buy instructional materials and cover some local school districts' costs is now worth nearly $38 billion, officials announced Tuesday, making it the nation's largest educational endowment.
Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson credited a booming natural gas industry for growing the Permanent School Fund, which was worth about $37.7 billion as of June 30.
It was started in 1854 with an initial investment of just $2 million.
The fund is overseen by Patterson's office and the State Board of Education, among other state entities. It gets proceeds from the sale of state land and rental of mineral rights for oil and natural gas exploration.
In a statement, Patterson and Education Commissioner Michael Williams said the fund had outpaced Harvard University's endowment, which they said was worth $36.4 billion through June 30.
A fund Texas uses to buy instructional materials and cover some local school districts' costs is now worth nearly $38 billion, officials announced Tuesday, making it the nation's largest educational endowment.
Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson credited a booming natural gas industry for growing the Permanent School Fund, which was worth about $37.7 billion as of June 30.
It was started in 1854 with an initial investment of just $2 million.
The fund is overseen by Patterson's office and the State Board of Education, among other state entities. It gets proceeds from the sale of state land and rental of mineral rights for oil and natural gas exploration.
In a statement, Patterson and Education Commissioner Michael Williams said the fund had outpaced Harvard University's endowment, which they said was worth $36.4 billion through June 30.
Pentagon Official: The President Is Lying To America — About Us, And About ISIS
◼ link
◼ his article is written under an anonymous byline. Read and you'll see why. - Discussion at Lucianne
President Barack Obama has taken a lot of flak since his Sunday night “60 Minutes” interview, in which he blamed the intelligence community for his failure to tackle the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. And that is right and proper. Because not only was his excuse of blaming us a lie, but when questioned on his lie, White House press secretary Josh Earnest doubled down with a whole new lie — both of which are easily, publicly proven false....
The United States military and intelligence community have learned a lot over the past decade of conflict. Our commander in chief, unfortunately, has not. Since the start of his administration, President Barack Obama has ignored his generals and the intelligence community. Over the past few weeks, he has half-heartedly pursued a strategy that destines us to fail in our mission, and over the past three days, he and his White House have lied to prove otherwise. To those who wear our nation’s uniform, or serve in her intelligence community, that’s insult — and injury.
◼ From Benghazi to Syria to ISIS - Larry Johnson/No Quarter
arack Obama is hoping that most Americans are morons or seized with a terminal case of Alzheimers disease. He and his sycophants are busy making the rounds and saying the most astonishing nonsense. Some of you already have pointed out in comments on other posts some of the more egregious examples, e.g., blaming ISIS on an intelligence failure.
◼ his article is written under an anonymous byline. Read and you'll see why. - Discussion at Lucianne
President Barack Obama has taken a lot of flak since his Sunday night “60 Minutes” interview, in which he blamed the intelligence community for his failure to tackle the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. And that is right and proper. Because not only was his excuse of blaming us a lie, but when questioned on his lie, White House press secretary Josh Earnest doubled down with a whole new lie — both of which are easily, publicly proven false....
The United States military and intelligence community have learned a lot over the past decade of conflict. Our commander in chief, unfortunately, has not. Since the start of his administration, President Barack Obama has ignored his generals and the intelligence community. Over the past few weeks, he has half-heartedly pursued a strategy that destines us to fail in our mission, and over the past three days, he and his White House have lied to prove otherwise. To those who wear our nation’s uniform, or serve in her intelligence community, that’s insult — and injury.
◼ From Benghazi to Syria to ISIS - Larry Johnson/No Quarter
arack Obama is hoping that most Americans are morons or seized with a terminal case of Alzheimers disease. He and his sycophants are busy making the rounds and saying the most astonishing nonsense. Some of you already have pointed out in comments on other posts some of the more egregious examples, e.g., blaming ISIS on an intelligence failure.
Labels:
BLAME,
He Lied,
Intelligence,
ISIS,
President/Candidate Obama,
Radical Islamists,
Scandals
Bay Area Water Agency Offering Rebates Up To $100 For Rainwater Collection
◼ Bay Area Water Agency Offering Rebates Up To $100 For Rainwater Collection - CBS SF
If you show a receipt for a 50 gallon water barrel and submit a photo showing how it’s set up to collect rainwater from your roof, you could get up to a $100 rebate.
A single family home can get a rebate for up to two barrels, and four barrels for multi-family homes or commercial properties.
One barrel represents less than half of the 129 gallons the water agency’s average customer uses each day. Officials are hoping the rain barrel rebate will encourage new conservation habits.
“Roughly 30-50 percent of all residential water use is outdoors so even 50 gallons can make a contribution,” said Michael Hurley, water resource manager at the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency.
Labels:
California,
Drought
Protests in Hong Kong
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Perhaps most incredible photo of #HongKong you will ever see: protests last night via @hkdemonow pic.twitter.com/hSuYMXHTCF
— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) October 1, 2014FireChat: what is it and how is it powering the Hong Kong protests? http://t.co/75M1FE91ao #FireChat #HongKong pic.twitter.com/S1AIweUFgf
— The Week UK (@TheWeekUK) October 1, 2014Hong Kong protesters continue to defy Beijing with calls for democracy http://t.co/Ryrx7dXtJQ * #HongKong
— Patricia Johnson (@johnspatricc) October 1, 2014Drone footage captures stunning aerial footage of thousands protesting in downtown #HongKong http://t.co/FKflPFP2m9 pic.twitter.com/x5miZUDWpm
— PostTV (@PostTV) October 1, 2014Tensions are mounting in #HongKong as protests spread http://t.co/Hu5wuihXHt pic.twitter.com/SqsgzB1JvK
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 1, 2014#HongKong The most orderly and well disciplined protest I've experienced since...the last protest I covered in Hong Kong
— Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) October 1, 2014Symbolic in Buddhism, Umbrellas protect one from suffering & obstacles. #HongKong is well guarded #UmbrellaRevolution pic.twitter.com/Z7JybN299j
— JU (@JigmeUgen) October 1, 2014
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