Well, folks... another Monday... another week!
No private contact from my buddy Russ as of yet. (And obviously no public response...)
As for my buddy "He Whose Name Dare Not Be Mentioned," once again... he's a busy man. A busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy man!
(NOPE! NOT BEING SARCASTIC! HE REALLY IS!)
Listen... I'm happy to have Michelle as a frequent commenter.
(*WINK*)
And, folks... any of you who think Michelle is just a sycophant... you couldn't be more wrong. While we agree far more often than not, at times we see things differently. Have no doubt that the next time I'm "unusually wrong," Michelle will call me on it - here... publicly.
(*GUFFAW*)
(*GRIN*)
Anyway... RUSS... back to YOU... com'on in, buddy... THE WATER'S FINE!
(Meaning... er... I don't LITERALLY bite; why not engage in a bit of interaction?!)
Anyway... on to today's newsbites...
As always... found within the Comments section of this "Newsbites" post!
10 comments:
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/27/new-york-gov-cuomo-loosens-ebola-quarantine-restrictions-after-criticism/
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's administration on Monday said a health care worker quarantined under an Ebola watch after she returned from Sierra Leone - and who threatened a lawsuit - has been cleared to go home.
* CLEARED ACCORDING TO MEDICAL PROTOCOLS... OR CLEARED OUT OF POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY...?
The state Department of Health said the patient, Kaci Hickox, has been symptom-free for 24 hours, and "is being discharged" after being evaluated in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
* BUT ISN'T THE INCUBATION (???) PERIOD A WEEK OR EVEN SEVERAL WEEKS...???
The move comes as New Jersey and New York have faced pressure from the Obama administration to dial back their quarantine policies. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced late Sunday he had loosened some of the restrictions in a mandatory 21-day Ebola quarantine that he had ordered along with Christie this past Friday.
(*SIGH*)
In New Jersey, Hickox, a nurse from Maine, blasted the state, saying she was treated "like a criminal." Hickox tested negative for Ebola in a preliminary evaluation, but Christie's administration continued to stand by its policies.
The health department said Monday that the patient was subject to quarantine at first because she had direct exposure to people suffering from Ebola in West Africa. At this point, though, she has requested to return to Maine, and the state says that will be arranged "via a private carrier."
* SOUNDS INSANE TO ME.
"She will remain subject to New Jersey's mandatory quarantine order while in New Jersey," the department said. "Health officials in Maine have been notified of her arrangements and will make a determination under their own laws on her treatment when she arrives."
The department also stressed that while in isolation, the nurse was given access to "a computer, cell phone, reading material and nourishment of choice."
Christie issued a statement on Sunday that stressed that home confinement would be used for New Jersey residents and others when possible.
"The protocol is clear that a New Jersey resident with no symptoms, but who has come into contact with someone with Ebola, such as a health care provider, would be subject to a mandatory quarantine order and quarantined at home. Non-residents would be transported to their homes if feasible and, if not, quarantined in New Jersey," said a statement from Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts.
* SOUNDS REASONABLE...
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
But New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, calling Hickox a "returning hero," charged that she was "treated with disrespect" when she was put into quarantine. He said that she was interrogated repeatedly and things were not explained well to her.
* THE MAYOR OF NEW YORK... A COMPLETE NUTTER! (A DEMOCRAT OF COURSE!)
Cuomo, too, took a softer tone in issuing revised guidelines for his state on Sunday.
* OF COURSE HE DID...
Under the new guidelines, medical professionals who have had contact with Ebola patients will be quarantined at home and receive twice-daily monitoring if they have no symptoms. Family members will be allowed to stay, and friends may visit with the approval of health officials. The state will also pay for any lost compensation, if they are not paid by a volunteer organization.
* AGAIN... WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE MORE REASONABLE THAN THIS...???
The new guidelines come after White House officials and health experts strongly criticized the mandatory quarantine, which was put in place in response to the infection of a New York City doctor, Craig Spencer. Cuomo had originally criticized Dr. Spencer for not obeying a 21-day voluntary quarantine. But on Sunday, he called the health care workers "heroes" and said his administration would encourage more medical workers to volunteer to fight Ebola.
* WHAT... A... DOUCHE.
Meanwhile, in New York a 5-year-old boy returning from West Africa reportedly was taken to a local hospital Sunday with possible Ebola symptoms. He was reported to have a 103-degree fever.
Earlier Sunday the White House expressed concern about what it called the "unintended consequences" of the mandatory quarantine, telling Fox News that the Obama administration is working on new federal guidelines on returning health-care workers exposed to Ebola, realizing the concern among Americans about a potential outbreak on U.S. soil.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said early Sunday that the 21-day quarantines originally imposed in Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York can have the "unintended consequence" of discouraging health care workers from volunteering, particularly in the West African countries, where an estimated 4,500 people have so far this year died from Ebola.
* BULLSHIT! SINCE WHEN IS THE PROSPECT OF 21 DAYS OF WHAT AMOUNTS TO PAID "STAYCATION" UPON RETURN FROM A DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENT A PROSPECT TO DREAD? (JUST... THINK... ABOUT... IT...!)
"We do not want to put them in a position where it makes it very, very uncomfortable for them to even volunteer," he told “Fox News Sunday."
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... OBAMA COULDN'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT AMERICA OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
Christie told Fox News that he has “great respect” for Fauci but defended his decision to impose the quarantine, saying he has an obligation to protect residents amid Centers for Disease Control guidelines that remain a “moving target.”
"Imagine that you're the person in charge of public health for people of a large, densely populated state … and these protocols continue to move and change,” Christie said. “It was my conclusion we need to do this to protect the public health of people of New Jersey. (New York) Governor Cuomo agreed. And now, (Chicago) Mayor Emanuel agrees. And I think the CDC eventually will come around to our point of view on this."
* SO... BOTTOM LINE... CHRISTIE SUCKS SLIGHTLY LESS THAN CUOMO.
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-outbreak-u-s-soldiers-returning-from-liberia-placed-in-isolation-in-italy/
U.S. soldiers returning from Liberia are being placed in isolation in Vicenza, Italy out of concern for the Ebola virus, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.
* GOOD! SANITY REIGNS!
The soldiers being monitored include Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams who was the commander of the U.S. Army in Africa but turned over duties to the 101st Airborne Division over the weekend, Martin reports. There are currently 11 soldiers in isolation.
They apparently were met by Carabinieri in full hazmat suits.
If the policy remains in effect, everyone returning from Liberia - several hundred - will be placed in isolation for 21 days. Thirty are expected in today, Martin reports.
* GOOD...!!! SOUNDS TOTALLY REASONABLE TO ME!
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/new-jersey-releases-nurse-quarantined-suspected-ebola-n234661
* AND NOW... DOMESTICALLY...
The nurse forcibly quarantined in New Jersey after she came home from treating Ebola patients in West Africa...
* IS AN IRRESPONSIBLE SPOILED BRAT WHO SHOULD HAVE HER NURSING LICENCE REVOKED BASED UPON HER BEHAVIOR...
* BUT INSTEAD...
...will be released Monday, state officials said.
* FUCK THE PUBLIC HEALTH!
Kaci Hickox has been held against her will...
* THE WORD IS "QUARANTINED!" THE MORONS AT NBC NEWS SEEM TO BE EQUATING BEST MEDICAL PRACTICES WITH KIDNAPPING. (AND THESE ARE THE PEOPLE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE RELY UPON FOR NEWS AND INFORMATION...? TERRIFYING!)
Hickox has hired a lawyer and spoken out publicly against her quarantine. “Since testing negative for Ebola on early Saturday morning, the patient being monitored in isolation at University Hospital in Newark has thankfully been symptom free for the last 24 hours,” New Jersey health department officials said in a statement. “As a result, and after being evaluated in coordination with the CDC and the treating clinicians at University Hospital, the patient is being discharged.”
* STUPID. DANGEROUS. TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE.
The White House even weighed in, pressing New York and New Jersey to reverse their decisions to quarantine all returning medical workers who have treated Ebola patients.
* IS OBAMA EVER ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF ANY DEBATE? (SERIOUSLY...?!?!)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had advised states to monitor anyone returning from the three Ebola-hit West African nations - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - for the 21 day maximum period, but hadn't advised quarantine.
* OBVIOUSLY THE INMATES HAVE TAKEN OVER THE ASYLUM OVER AT CDC.
http://nypost.com/2014/10/27/ex-cbs-reporter-government-related-entity-bugged-my-computer/
A former CBS News reporter who quit the network over claims it kills stories that put President Obama in a bad light says she was spied on by a “government-related entity” that planted classified documents on her computer.
In her new memoir, Sharyl Attkisson says a source who arranged to have her laptop checked for spyware in 2013 was “shocked” and “flabbergasted” at what the analysis revealed.
* LET'S HEAR FROM THIS "SOURCE" - ON THE RECORD.
“This is outrageous. Worse than anything Nixon ever did. I wouldn’t have believed something like this could happen in the United States of America,” Attkisson quotes the source saying.
She speculates that the motive was to lay the groundwork for possible charges against her or her sources.
* FOLKS... I'M NOT SAYING I PUT ANYTHING PAST THIS GOVERNMENT... BUT LET'S SEE THE FIRST-HAND EVIDENCE.
Attkisson says the source, who’s “connected to government three-letter agencies,” told her the computer was hacked into by “a sophisticated entity that used commercial, non-attributable spyware that’s proprietary to a government agency: either the CIA, FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency or the National Security Agency.”
* FOLKS... I SWEAR TO FRIGGIN' GOD... MY COMPUTER JUST FROZE AS I WAS READING AND MOVING MY MOUSE...
(*GUFFAW*)
(*SCRATCHING MY CHIN*)
The breach was accomplished through an “otherwise innocuous e-mail” that Attkisson says she got in February 2012, then twice “redone” and “refreshed” through a satellite hookup and a Wi-Fi connection at a Ritz-Carlton hotel. The spyware included programs that Attkisson says monitored her every keystroke and gave the snoops access to all her e-mails and the passwords to her financial accounts.
* AGAIN... ATTKISSON CAN "SAY" AS MUCH AS SHE WANTS... BUT I WANT TO SEE EVIDENCE.
“The intruders discovered my Skype account handle, stole the password, activated the audio, and made heavy use of it, presumably as a listening tool,” she wrote in “Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington.”
Attkisson says her source — identified only as “Number One” — told her the spying was most likely not court-authorized because it went on far longer than most legal taps. But the most shocking finding, she says, was the discovery of three classified documents that Number One told her were “buried deep in your operating system. In a place that, unless you’re a some kind of computer whiz specialist, you wouldn’t even know exists.” “They probably planted them to be able to accuse you of having classified documents if they ever needed to do that at some point,” Number One added.
In her book, Attkisson says CBS lost interest in her coverage of the deadly attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, and killed her stories of the federal “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal.
Both CBS and the White House declined to comment.
* WHY WOULDN'T THE WHITE HOUSE DENY ATTKISSON'S CHARGES?
* THE REPUBLICANS SHOULD OFFICIALLY LOOK INTO THIS. (BECAUSE YOU KNOW THE DEMOCRATS WON'T...)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/391004/reestimating-obamacare-james-c-capretta
During the long congressional debate over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — i.e., ObamaCare — one thing was certain: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would ultimately certify that the final legislation would...
(*SNORT*)
...lower future budget deficits.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
It had to be that way. President Obama had made an unequivocal promise in a nationally televised address to Congress: He would not sign a bill that added “one dime” to projected federal deficits. The only way to make good on that promise was to have in hand a CBO cost estimate showing modest deficit reduction from the law’s provisions.
CBO delivered what the president was looking for with its final cost estimate of the legislation in March 2010.
That CBO backed up Democratic claims about the legislation’s budgetary effects was not surprising. It was well known during development of the legislation that key Democratic staff members in the House and Senate were working very closely with CBO to shape the legislation. These staffers would send drafts of the proposed legislation to CBO, along with requests for advice on how to make the legislation look better from a budgetary perspective. And CBO would send back preliminary estimates along with suggested changes that would improve the “score.”
It’s worth noting that these transactions were entirely confidential — meaning that Republicans in Congress were kept in the dark.
It is not unusual for CBO to provide confidential cost estimates to legislators for bills that have not yet been released for public consideration, and CBO has certainly worked with Republican majorities in the past on a confidential basis too. But the health-care legislation under development in 2009 and 2010 was not ordinary legislation. It was among the most complex pieces of legislation ever developed in Congress. It is very unlikely that Congress could have passed it without CBO’s significant analytical support throughout the entire process.
It also seems that the back-and-forth between CBO and key Democrats in Congress resulted in an implicit bargain: Congress would accept many of CBO’s suggested “tweaks” to improve the official cost estimate on the condition that CBO would provide support to claims of the fiscal virtues of the legislation.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
There are many reasons to be skeptical of CBO’s official projections. Among other things, critics have noted that the ACA relies on deep and unrealistic cuts in Medicare to make its numbers add up, double-counts some Medicare cuts (using the funds to pay for ACA spending, and for future Medicare spending as well), and underestimates the expense of the new entitlement commitments.
* AS I ALERTED YOU TO AGAIN AND AGAIN AT THE TIME!
And now a new analysis from the Senate Budget Committee (SBC) Republican staff provides even more evidence that the ACA will widen future deficits, not narrow them. The extrapolation of $180 billion in deficit reduction from CBO’s last estimate becomes $131 billion in higher deficits over the coming decade — a swing of $311 billion.
What’s interesting about the SBC staff assessment is that it is based on CBO’s own numbers and analyses. The staff analysis uses as a starting point CBO’s last estimate for the ACA, provided when House Republicans were preparing for a vote on repeal in July 2012. The SBC Republican staffers extrapolate the projection out to 2024 and find that, using CBO’s unadjusted methodology, the ACA would produce deficit reduction of $180 billion over the period from 2015 to 2024.
They then make two important adjustments to the numbers based on trends and findings identified in other CBO work. First, they reduce the expected savings from the Medicare cuts in the ACA because CBO has substantially reduced the Medicare-spending baseline.
* BECAUSE CBO HAS SUBTANTIALLY REDUCED THE MEDICARE-SPENDING BASELINE!
In other words, Medicare spending is expected to be lower than previously thought, for reasons other than the ACA, and so the ACA’s cuts will, in many cases, produce less savings than previously projected. Second, they reduce expected federal revenue collection based on a CBO report issued earlier this year that found that the ACA would induce about 2.5 million people to drop out of the labor force by 2024. The SBC analysis assumes about a 1% drop in taxable wage compensation over the coming decade.
CBO’s official cost estimates are important, but they can be overrated too because they can be manipulated during the legislative process. Congress is adept at finding the path of least budgetary resistance — i.e., those provisions for which CBO will assign substantial savings or revenue but that are unlikely to work out as planned in the real world.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/states-of-taxation-1414451028
On Tuesday the Tax Foundation releases its 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index and once again Wyoming leads the nation in welcoming commerce.
* AND THE RESULT...
Last year the state’s economy recorded real GDP growth of 7.6%, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.
You won’t find growth like that in New York or New Jersey, the high-tax locales that once again finished 49th and 50th among the states.
New Jersey eked out real GDP growth of 1.1% last year, while New York’s economy grew an anemic 0.7%.
* CHRIS CHRISTIE'S NEW JERSEY IF MEMORY SERVES...
(*SHRUG*)
The state showing the most improvement since last year’s ranking is North Carolina. The Tarheel State climbed to 16th this year from 44th in last year’s ranking. The Tax Foundation reports that “North Carolina’s largest improvement was in the individual income tax component section, where legislation restructured the previously multi-bracketed system” with a top rate of 7.75% to a single-bracket system with a rate of 5.8% “and a generous standard deduction of $7,500.”
North Carolina is also reducing its corporate income tax rate — to 6% this year from 6.9% last year. The rate could drop as low as 3% by 2017 if the state achieves certain revenue targets for its general fund. North Carolina also received credit in this year’s ranking for a simplified sales tax system.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/marc-thiessen-ebola-and-obamas-crisis-of-competence/2014/10/27/ee8db35a-5dd2-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html
Ebola may not be a widespread health crisis in the United States just yet, but it is creating a crisis of another kind — a crisis of confidence in the competence of the federal government.
Many Americans were shocked to learn that when Ebola-infected doctor Craig Spencer returned to New York City from Guinea, took a three-mile run, visited a coffee stand, ate at a meatball restaurant, traveled on three New York subway lines, met friends at a Brooklyn bowling alley and used an Uber sedan to return home, he was not violating the U.S. government’s Ebola protocols.
* NOPE! INDEED, HE WAS FOLLOW OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PROTOCOL - SUCH AS IT IS... WAS... WILL BE... (???)... OK, WAS AT THE TIME.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructs health workers returning from West Africa to monitor their health for 21 days and that “during the time that you are monitoring your health, you can continue your normal activities.”
* DOES THIS SOUND SANE TO YOU?
Only after a health worker’s temperature reaches 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit does the CDC advise that he or she go to a doctor, “limit your contact with other people” and “avoid public transportation.”
Continue your normal activities?
* YEP. THAT'S WHAT IT SAYS...
It is simply unbelievable that this remains the official federal guidance for people who were exposed to the Ebola virus — especially after the CDC just came under fire for telling Dallas nurse Amber Vinson (who had been exposed to Ebola and had a 99.5-degree fever) that she was safe to fly on a plane with 134 passengers aboard because her temperature had not yet reached 100.4 degrees.
* I DON'T FIND IT "UNBELIEVABLE." DO YOU? TRULY? KNOWING ALL YOU KNOW OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS ANY OF THIS REALLY "UNBELIEVABLE" TO YOU? (IF SO... YOU HAVEN'T BEEN PAYING MUCH ATTENTION OVER TO THE PAST SIX YEARS!)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
So bad has the CDC’s handling of Ebola been that the governors of New York and New Jersey had to step in and impose their own mandatory 21-day quarantine on health-care workers returning to their states from West Africa after treating Ebola patients.
* WHICH THEY QUICKLY UNIMPOSED AFTER FACING A DRESSING DOWN FROM THE WHITE HOUSE...
* ONE WOULD EXPECT CUOMO TO KOWTOW... BUT CHRISTIE...? (BUT... HE DID!)
From the start, President Obama has treated Ebola like a public relations crisis rather than a health crisis — offering Americans multiple assurances that turned out to be false.
On Sept. 16, the President promised Americans that his administration was “taking the necessary precautions . . . so that someone with the virus doesn’t get on a plane for the United States.”
* AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED?
Four days later, on Sept. 20, an Ebola-infected Liberian national, Thomas Eric Duncan, flew to Dallas, where he later died in a Texas hospital.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Obama further assured Americans that “In the unlikely event that someone with Ebola does reach our shores, we’ve taken new measures so that we’re prepared here at home.” A few weeks later, two Dallas nurses contracted Ebola because, as a nurses union put it, there was “no advance preparedness on what to do with the patient, there was no protocol, there was no system.”
(*SILENCE*)
And now, a month later, an American doctor with Ebola was taking the subway and bowling in New York — all while following federal safety guidelines.
* THE AGE OF OBAMA!
The Ebola crisis is sapping the last vestiges of trust in the basic competence of this administration.
According to the World Health Organization, Ebola now has a 70% death rate. When a doctor infected with Ebola is allowed to ride the New York subway with the federal government’s blessing, Americans are right to be angry.
* DOES ANYONE DISAGREE...??? ANYONE...? ANYONE AT ALL...???
And when their president refuses to restrict U.S. travel visas for residents of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — and pressures New York and New Jersey to weaken their quarantine policy — Americans don’t believe that he is doing everything in his power to protect them.
* BECAUSE HE'S NOT!
From the Islamic State to Ebola, the world appears to be spinning out of control — and Americans sense that their president is completely out of his depth.
* ROMNEY WOULD HAVE BEEN A HUGE IMPROVEMENT. HELL... I'D RATHER SEE "DUBYA" BACK RUNNING THE SHOW! FOLKS... EVEN IF YOU DON'T AGREE WITH ME THAT OBAMA'S ACTIONS WHICH HURT AMERICA ARE DELIBERATE ACTIONS TO HURT AMERICAN... (*PAUSE*)... EVEN YOU "BENEFIT OF THE DOUBTERS" MUST ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IF YOU'RE RIGHT THIS SIMPLY MEANS THAT OBAMA IS A TOTAL INCOMPETENT.
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