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  1. #1
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Obama’s spectacular incompetence turns deadly

    Obama’s spectacular incompetence turns deadly


    By Joseph Curl - - Wednesday, October 15, 2014

    ANALYSIS/OPINION:

    It was only a matter of time.

    President Obama, a short-term college professor and failed community organizer who became a mostly absentee state senator and then an all-but-invisible U.S. senator, has Petered out. Per the Peter Principle, he has risen to his level of incompetence — some would argue far beyond it.

    The president — and the president alone — let Ebola into America. He could have made one phone call (even on Saturday, when playing his 200th round of golf as president) and said one sentence to protect all Americans from the usually fatal disease: “No one from West Africa gets into the country.”

    Done. That single sentence would have kept Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who had carried an Ebola sufferer back into her home after she was turned away at a hospital, out of Dallas. While he lied on an airport questionnaire about whether he had had contact with anyone suffering the disease, and while hospital workers blundered badly even though they knew he has been in Liberia, the bottom line is Duncan would not have been in America had the president banned visitors from Ebola-stricken countries. Simple.

    Many African countries have instituted such bans, and most Americans think such a ban would be a good idea, according to a recent survey. But Team Obama and his band of incompetent minions argue that shutting off flights from affected countries would “harm” the economy. Absurd.

    Mr. Obama’s stunning incompetence filters down to all who work for him (and in many cases, were hand-picked by him). His director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the incompetent Dr. Tom Frieden, has spent the last few weeks not — as one would expect — ramping up response to the deadly virus, but repeatedly saying there is virtually no threat to Americans.

    Then, of course, Ebola landed in the U.S., first at Dulles airport, then DFW. Despite assurances, a nurse contracted the disease, although we were told health care professionals were following the strictest protocol.

    On Wednesday, another nurse tested positive. While the CDC claims hospitals are ready for the crisis, the second nurse had flown on a commercial plane the day before she reported developing symptoms of infection. Now, another 132 people may have come into direct contact with the virus — and those people have no doubt had contact with hundreds of others.

    Meanwhile, back at the White House, Team Obama is in full panic mode — but only for political reasons. Although the president flew to a fundraiser in Colorado on Sept. 12, 2012 — just hours after four Americans were slaughtered by terrorists — Mr. Obama on Wednesday suddenly canceled plans to attend two fundraisers. He hastily scheduled a meeting on Ebola.

    That move followed another on Saturday, when The First Golfer, already in his limo preparing for yet another round of golf, delayed his outing so he could take a phone call from Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. The move was pure politics: He couldn’t very well take that call on the way to the course, and by staying at the White House, he was able to call in the photographers, who moved photos of him “working.”

    Ebola is now Mr. Obama’s Katrina. But where President George W. Bush was trying to mobilize thousands of rescue workers and tons of supplies for a surprisingly damaging hurricane, Mr. Obama could have prevented the arrival of a catastrophic illness that had been stomping across Africa for months. With three words: “No one in.”

    During August, when Ebola was emerging as a worldwide threat, Mr. Obama was playing golf daily on Martha’s Vineyard. He did not direct his top advisers and Cabinet secretaries to leap into emergency mode. No Drama Obama made it all sound like everything was peachy (while throwing salt in the wound that was Ferguson, Missouri).

    But with an election just three weeks away, the president is suddenly engaged. Every day brings more announcements of blue-ribbon meetings on Ebola, more pictures of him hard at work solving the world’s problems (no reporters, so no questions). There was even sudden talk of him going to Dallas to make it all OK.

    The White House has repeatedly used one word to describe the administration’s response to the Ebola crisis: “Tenacious.”

    The real word that applies though is “mendacious.” Or “fallacious.” Any other claim is audacious.

    Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz3GJpDK35j
    Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter


    Last edited by Newmexican; 10-16-2014 at 10:46 AM.

  2. #2
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Told in 2008: Obama administration ignored the CDC’s advice to prevent an Ebola outbr

    Told in 2008: Obama administration ignored the CDC’s advice to prevent an Ebola outbreak

    Added only 5 of 18 global health centers recommended


    By Jim McElhatton - The Washington Times - Wednesday, October 15, 2014

    The Centers for Disease Control told the incoming Obama administration in 2008 that it should establish 18 regional disease detection centers around the world to adequately safeguard the U.S. from emerging health threats like Ebola, according to an agency memo.
    But six years later, as the government struggles to contain the fallout from a deadly Ebola outbreak at home and abroad, the CDC still has only 10 centers — and none of them operates in the western Africa region hardest hit by the deadly virus.

    “The existing centers have already proven their effectiveness and impact on detecting and responding to outbreaks including avian influenza, aflatoxin poisoning, Rift Valley fever, Ebola and Marburg virus outbreaks,” the CDC said in its memo to the Obama transition team, which The Washington Times obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

    At the time, the CDC had five centers set up, and has only added five more of the 13 the agency had proposed “to complete the network and properly protect the nation.”

    The memo sheds new light on the problems dealing with the current Ebola crisis, which intensified with the revelations Wednesday that a second Texas nurse had tested positive for the disease and President Obama used a White House Cabinet meeting to promise a “more aggressive” federal response to the threat.

    The CDC’s plan outlined in the transition memo was based on the notion that the U.S. shouldn’t wait for a disease to enter the country but rather monitor threats in hot spots overseas to try to help local public health authorities control outbreaks before then.

    The CDC didn’t respond to messages seeking comment on its plans Wednesday.

    On its Web page, the agency said it has eight regional centers running, with another two in development.

    Aside from detecting and monitoring diseases, the centers also provide education to local public health authorities. Though the CDC operates three response centers in Africa — in Kenya, Egypt and South Africa — none of those are based in the western parts of the continent that have seen major Ebola outbreaks this year.

    News on Wednesday that another patient in the U.S. — a second health care worker who treated an Ebola patient in Texas — may be infected prompted calls for tightened travel restrictions and at least a temporary travel ban for Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, including one from House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

    The administration has so far rejected those calls, with health officials saying they fear the bans could prevent them from getting aid workers and medical assistance to and from Africa.

    Meanwhile, the fight over funding for anti-Ebola efforts has turned political.

    Fights over funding

    Five Democratic House members on Wednesday called for hearings into budget cuts at the National Institutes of Health and CDC.
    The lawmakers said NIH has lost $1.2 billion in funding over the last four years and that a CDC program that supports public workers was slashed 16 percent during the past four years, while a hospital preparedness program lost 44 percent of its funding.

    “The CDC and the NIH are already working to combat the spread of Ebola,” said Rep. Michael M. Honda, California Democrat. “In light of recent tragic developments in Texas, and in the interests of ensuring public safety and transparency, we need an update from these agencies so we can ensure they have the proper funding to protect patients, health care workers and the public at large.”

    As the deadly virus continues to spread, the CDC has sent dozens of disease control experts into western Africa. In a recent budget document, the agency also has said it’s seeking an extra $45 million for global health security “to accelerate progress toward a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats.”

    But the agency’s own memo to the president’s transition team highlighted the need for beefed-up infectious disease detection and other public health efforts overseas. It also reflects funding concerns during the George W. Bush administration.

    “Our investment is modest,” the CDC memo stated, “but our capacity in most critical areas has been eroded by budget attrition and increases in the cost of science, travel and infrastructure support in recent years.”

    The comments were included in the appendix to the agency’s 128-page briefing memo to the transition team. That same portion of the report had been sent in 2007 to a House appropriations subcommittee overseeing CDC funding, according to the transition memo.

    The memo also stated that “core funding” for noninfluenza infectious diseases was lacking, “leaving us many millions behind where we were five years ago when adjusted for inflation.”

    “Programs for rabies, rotavirus, food safety, special pathogens like Ebola virus and many others need immediate support if they are to sustain their baseline capabilities.”

    The White House and CDC have both cited the regional response centers in recent weeks as an example of the administration’s Ebola response.

    Neither the White House nor the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, responded to messages about the recommendation for 18 regional centers.

    Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, said in a recent floor speech that he’s worked for years to secure more funding for CDC disease detection centers overseas.

    “We must stop chasing diseases after the fact and start building public health systems capable of detecting and stopping diseases before they cross borders,” Mr. Harkin said.

    The transition memo sounded a similar warning to Mr. Obama’s team as the president prepared to take power in late 2008: “Our nation’s preparedness has greatly benefited from government investments in terrorism and pandemic influenza preparedness, but recent events illustrated that vulnerabilities remain.”

    Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz3GJs8xMeC
    Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

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