CDC Finally Admits that it Knows Little about How Ebola is Spread

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Photo Credit: KALLISTA / GETTY IMAGESBy Mike Lupica.

It was Ivy Baker Priest, former treasurer of the United States, who once said, “I’m often wrong, but never in doubt.” It is worth remembering the line now as you think of the conga line of famous doctors, led by Tom Frieden of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who kept assuring us they knew everything there was to know about transmission of the Ebola virus.

There was Frieden, who sadly starts to look like another government hack, going out night after night on television and offering tutorials on Ebola, even after the late Thomas Duncan had been diagnosed with it at Texas Health Presbyterian.

“We know how to stop Ebola,” Frieden said, with certainty on which cathedrals could be built.

Then two nurses at Texas Health, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, were diagnosed with Ebola; two of more than 70 people at that hospital who came into contact with Duncan before he died. Before long, Frieden was talking about a “breach in protocol,” even though any fool can see that the protocol should have been sending a SWAT team from the CDC to Dallas to monitor Duncan’s treatment.

Finally Frieden, who acted all along as if saying “I don’t know” was an act of treason, had to say this to a House panel on Thursday afternoon, talking about two trained nurses who supposedly followed all of the proper protocols and are sick with Ebola anyway: “While we do not yet know exactly how these transmissions occurred . . . .”

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MSNBC Calls GOP Ebola Criticism ‘Not Even Thinly-Veiled Racism’

By ALEX GRISWOLD.

Want a selective travel ban? Think the Mexican border should be secured? Turns out you’re not concerned about the spread of Ebola, you’re actually a really horrible bigot. At least, that was the stance of MSNBC hosts Alex Wagner and Joy Reid. The host of “Now with Alex Wagner” played clips of Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators criticizing President Obama and the CDC’s handling of the Ebola crisis, accusing them of “not even thinly-veiled racism.”

“That stuff is incredible,” Wagner said, referring to criticisms from Republican lawmakers, Glenn Beck, and Bill O’Reilly. “He is their president, Joy. I mean, it’s not even thinly veiled racism at this point.”

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerTop Doctor: CDC’s Ebola Safety Instructions Are Wrong, Could Lead To Contamination

By PATRICK HOWLEY.

Respected George Washington University hospital laboratory director Dr. Jonathan Reiner exposed the Obama administration’s flawed and inaccurate health advice for citizens during the Ebola outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came under fire Wednesday after it was revealed that officials advised Dallas nurse Amber Vinson that she could board a Frontier Airlines flight to Ohio with a mild fever after she treated Ebola patient Thomas Duncan. Vinson was later diagnosed with Ebola.

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NURSES: WE WERE TOLD TO CALL AUTHORITIES FOR EBOLA PROTOCOL

By Breibart TV.

A statement from National Nurses United on the treatment of Dallas Ebola patient said that “nurses were asked to call the Infectious Disease Department” to learn the policies on how to treat Duncan.

The statement, which was played in its entirety on CNN on Wednesday morning, also reports that Ebola training at the hospital was “optional,” “nurses have been left to train each other,” and that nurses who interacted with Duncan simply continued treating other patients.

According to the statement, “there was no advanced preparedness on what to do with the patient. There was no protocol, there was no system. The nurses were asked to call the Infectious Disease Department. The Infectious Disease Department did not have clear policies to provide either.”

The union added that “advanced preparation that had been done by the hospital primarily consisted of e-mailing us about one optional lecture or seminar on Ebola…

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Pope's "Change in Tone on Homosexuality and Cohabitation Remarkable"

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Photo Credit: Demotix / CorbisIs this the modern family according to Francis? From gay relationships to extramarital sex, from divorce and remarriage to civil unions, the Roman Catholic church has signaled it is ready to adopt what some see as a markedly more conciliatory tone towards those in “irregular” familial setups. . .

The [Pope’s synod] document, known as a relatio post disceptationem, received applause when it was read aloud in the synod hall after a week of discussions, due to continue this week. It does not contain any decisions but offers a significant idea of the gathering’s direction of travel. Some Vatican observers said its change in tone on homosexuality and cohabitation was remarkable.

“The document published today by the synod of bishops represents an earthquake, the ‘big one’ that hit after months of smaller tremors,” wrote John Thavis, author of The Vatican Diaries. “The document clearly reflects Pope Francis’s desire to adopt a more merciful pastoral approach on marriage and family issues.”

Referring to the increasing numbers of people choosing to live together before marriage, or to have civil weddings, the bishops spoke of the need to see “the constructive elements” in those options while not viewing them as an equal substitute for Christian marriage. “In such unions, it is possible to grasp authentic family values or at least the wish for them,” they noted. . .

“Often they wish to encounter a church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?”

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Democrats Lied, People Died

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Photo Credit: ExaminerBy James Simpson.

The New York Times is now admitting that WMD always existed in Iraq, they were discovered many times, even injuring our soldiers, but the despicable leftists would crucify anyone who told the truth. So people lied to save their own skins. “Bush lied, people died,” as the slogan went. But the liars are, were and have always been the Left. Chief among them was presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. . . The entire episode is a disgraceful example of just how vicious, selfish and dishonest official Washington and its media minders can be.

Consider: back in the 1990s, both Bill and Hillary Clinton swore up and down that Saddam Hussein had WMD. John Kerry and other assorted Democrats followed suit. That was the narrative of official Washington. But when Bush opted to invade Iraq – not merely because of that threat, but for many other equally justifiable reasons as well – suddenly they all became scoffers at the whole notion. They began to beat the drum “Bush lied, people died” . . .

People should be in jail, but in the Left’s world they become heroes. Meanwhile, Americans died while Democrats lied – relentlessly doing everything in their power to disrupt the war and hobble Bush for strictly partisan reasons, while our armed forces were forced to deal with their rampant interference.

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Photo Credit: Tyler Hicks / The New York TimesReport: Thousands of Abandoned Chemical Weapons Found in Iraq from 2004 to 2011

By C. J. CHIVERS.

The soldiers at the blast crater sensed something was wrong.

It was August 2008 near Taji, Iraq. They had just exploded a stack of old Iraqi artillery shells buried beside a murky lake. The blast, part of an effort to destroy munitions that could be used in makeshift bombs, uncovered more shells.

Two technicians assigned to dispose of munitions stepped into the hole. Lake water seeped in. One of them, Specialist Andrew T. Goldman, noticed a pungent odor, something, he said, he had never smelled before.

He lifted a shell. Oily paste oozed from a crack. “That doesn’t look like pond water,” said his team leader, Staff Sgt. Eric J. Duling.

The specialist swabbed the shell with chemical detection paper. It turned red — indicating sulfur mustard, the chemical warfare agent designed to burn a victim’s airway, skin and eyes.

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Bush lied, people died

By James Simpson.

In 2005, I wrote an article by that title. It was meant sarcastically. It has always been the Left that drives Americans into dangerous, deadly situations. And this time was no different. Before the Iraq war, official Washington, that is the entrenched political Left, was beating the drum over Saddam’s WMD program. Virtually every single prominent Democrat, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and many others, described in apocalyptic terms the danger Saddam posed with his WMD program. NOBODY believed Saddam was telling the truth when he claimed he no longer had a WMD program. Everyone, even the UN, believe it or not, made statements to the effect that he needed to fess up or go. So it was infuriating to see the Democrats flip like a swtich the minute G.W. Bush decided to do something about it. Suddenly it was all Bush’s fault. George W. Bush, i.e. “Chimpy Bushitler” according to leftists, the knuckle-dragging moron, suddenly became the Machiavellian genius who tricked the credulous, innocent Democrats into a war for WMD that suddenly never existed! And Saddam’s connection to 9-11? Oh perish the thought, thou fools!

Only the Left, with its practiced media allies could pull off such a fraud. And only the Left would continue to pump that narrative. Leftists lie. It is pretty much all they do and one of the few things they are actually accomplished at. So I wrote the following article. It is long but read every word. More facts in that article than any dozen from the New York Times or Washington Post. That is because it is based on facts, not an agenda, unlike the Post, Times and so many others whose facts must fit their agenda. I criticized Bush for many of the things he did. But he cannot be blamed for unilaterally suckering us into going to war. The Democrats share equal or more blame. And now, having utterly ruined our hard-won victories in Iraq, Obama can claim direct, personal and unitary responsibility for all those deaths and injuries being a horrific and pointless waste. Read on:

Bush Lied, People Died

That statement all by itself encapsulates the political Left’s modus operandi. It is at once deliberately provocative, crudely insulting and a calculated lie. Slogans like this are crafted for impact, not accuracy, and illustrate succinctly that the Left is never interested in facts, only results. It is one of the many reasons I find the American Left one of the most revolting and disingenuous movements in modern history, for these Leninist tactics shield the reality of a worldwide movement designed solely for its own advancement and whose 100 year history is steeped in blood, responsible for more death and oppressive misery than all the wars of history combined. This article is dedicated entirely to refuting the oft-repeated “Bush lied, people died” slander and should settle, for reasonable people at least, the debate over whether or not the Bush administration made the right choice in invading Iraq.

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City of Houston Demands Pastors Turn Over Sermons

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Photo Credit: TPNNThe city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court.

“The city’s subpoena of sermons and other pastoral communications is both needless and unprecedented,” Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Christina Holcomb said in a statement. “The city council and its attorneys are engaging in an inquisition designed to stifle any critique of its actions.”

ADF, a nationally-known law firm specializing in religious liberty cases, is representing five Houston pastors. They filed a motion in Harris County court to stop the subpoenas arguing they are “overbroad, unduly burdensome, harassing, and vexatious.”

“Political and social commentary is not a crime,” Holcomb said. “It is protected by the First Amendment.”

The subpoenas are just the latest twist in an ongoing saga over the Houston’s new non-discrimination ordinance. The law, among other things, would allow men to use the ladies room and vice versa. The city council approved the law in June.

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WATCH: Jumbo Squid Attack Submarine

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Photo Credit: Greenpeace USAIt is like a scene from an old wives’ tale about the giant, tentacled kraken dragging shipping vessels to their doom — two Humboldt squid, flashing an angry red, attack a Dual Deep Worker submersible containing two Greenpeace USA divers on an expedition in the Bering Sea. In a Vine video shot by one of the divers, the two large cephalopods, also commonly referred to as “jumbo squid” or “red devils,” rush at the submersible while spewing vision-obscuring clouds of ink.

The video feeds the perception that the large mollusks – smaller than the elusive giant squid, but still weighing up to 100 pounds and measuring as long as 6.2 feet — are aggressively violent and dangerous to humans. The creatures typically range from 660 to 2,300 feet below the surface of the water, and roam off the coasts of British Columbia all the way down to Chile. In fact, its name is derived from the Humboldt Current off the western coast of South America.

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Thousands Released After Immigration Holds Denied

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Photo Credit: APLocal Jails Refusing to Hold Illegal Immigrant Offenders, Forcing Feds to Track Them Down

By William La Jeunesse and Laura Prabucki.

Local police agencies across the country are frustrating efforts at the federal level to detain and deport criminal illegal immigrants, leaving immigration officials scrambling to track them down.

In the last nine months, 275 counties have refused to honor requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they be notified before releasing an illegal immigrant from custody.

In doing so, those jurisdictions have released some 9,000 with criminal records who otherwise would have been removed from the U.S.

In the past, these so-called “detainer requests” from ICE were routinely granted.

Now, however, the very counties that once turned over thousands of illegal immigrant felons to ICE are refusing — afraid of being sued for holding the wrong person or forced to renege by immigrant-friendly policies in Democrat-dominated districts.

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Thousands Released After Immigration Holds Denied

By The Associated Press.

Immigration officials say local authorities released thousands of immigrants from jails this year despite efforts to take them into federal custody, including more than 3,000 people with previous felony charges or convictions.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice says roughly 8,800 of the agency’s requests for local authorities to detain arrested immigrants for up to 48 additional hours until they are placed in federal custody were denied during the first eight months of the year.

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Senior Republicans Criticize Ebola 'Czar' Choice for Lack of Medical Background

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Photo Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, APBy Fox News.

Senior Republicans on Capitol Hill Friday criticized Ron Klain, President Obama’s choice to be “Ebola czar,” as a figurehead with no health background.

“Given the mounting failings in the Obama administration’s response to the Ebola outbreak, it is right that the president has sought to task a single individual to coordinate its response, “said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “But I have to ask why the president didn’t pick an individual with a noteworthy infectious disease or public health background?”

Klain, a longtime political hand, served as chief of staff to Al Gore and Vice President Joe Biden but has no apparent medical or health care background.

A White House official said Friday that Klain comes to the job with “strong management credentials, extensive federal government experience overseeing complex operations and good working relationships with leading members of Congress, as well as senior Obama administration officials, including the president.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called him an “excellent choice.”

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Photo Credit: TownHallGood News: Obama Appoints Ebola Czar

By Daniel Doherty.

Katie noted earlier today that the president has been toying with the idea of appointing an “Ebola Czar” to deal with this crisis – presumably because the CDC Director and others have failed to do so. Now he has.

According to CNN, the president has tapped Ron Klain for the job, a White House insider who was the point person on the stimulus act and has a reputation in Washington for managerial competence…

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Photo Credit: Associated PressObama Names Democratic Operative to Coordinate Ebola Response

By SABRINA TAVERNISE and MITCH SMITH.

President Obama named a trusted political adviser on Friday to take over the government’s response to the deadly Ebola virus, as health officials in two states worked to track a growing list of people who may have been exposed because of missteps in quarantine and containment.

The appointment of Ron Klain, a seasoned Democratic operative and White House veteran, spoke of the seriousness of the situation for the administration, which was eager to put the management of the crisis back on track in the midst of a tough election season. The response has been criticized as sloppy, with two intensive care nurses in a Dallas hospital falling ill after treating a Liberian, Thomas Eric Duncan, who eventually died from the virus. One of the nurses had been allowed to take a commercial flight despite telling the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that she had a slight fever.

The appointment came a day after members of Congress lashed out at federal health officials and just hours after the disclosure by the State Department that yet another employee of the Dallas hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian, who had handled Ebola specimens in a lab, had traveled, boarding a Caribbean cruise ship. The government of Belize said the ship was in that country’s waters, but the authorities there have refused to allow American officials to evacuate the passenger. Mexico would not even allow the ship to dock, and it was headed back to Galveston, Tex., with the lab worker held in isolation. Officials said the risk of infection was very low, but the revelation deepened the impression that the administration was struggling to stay ahead of the virus and the public anxiety.

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How an Obama Administration Policy is Destroying Lives

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Photo Credit: AIMIn late August and early September, hospitals across the nation began reporting an explosion of severe respiratory illnesses among children. Children’s Hospital Colorado treated about 3,600 children between August 18 and September 24, and at least 692 since. On September 5th, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital saw a one day record of 540 kids. The emergency room was filled to capacity. Mobile, Alabama’s USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital reported 340 cases by September 12th. Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri had seen 450 patients as of September 7th, 60 of whom required intensive care. At least six Chicago area hospitals were so overwhelmed that they stopped admitting patients under 18 “until further notice.” Many infected children across the country are experiencing some form of paralysis. Six children and at least two adults have died.

Government health officials haven’t offered any explanation for the unusual outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control has pointedly refused to disclose the states where children have died or even specific locations of outbreaks. State and local officials are similarly closed mouthed. Except for suggesting routine precautions, public officials largely refuse to offer any details whatsoever, and in some cases have spread misinformation. And the media seem incapable of penetrating the wall of silence, simply repeating the official narrative. But there is significant, almost irrefutable evidence that this outbreak is the direct result of this year’s illegal alien invasion from Central America.

Frequently called the “mystery” illness, no healthcare professional has offered an explanation for how it got here or why it is hitting children now. The worst cases have been identified as stemming from Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68). Enteroviruses are among the most common pathogens, responsible for a wide variety of illnesses, including polio, but usually infections are mild. There are over 100 Enterovirus variants and about 10 to 15 million cases in the U.S. each year. The CDC explains away the outbreak by citing this figure, and noting that many more children die each year from influenza.

But this outbreak is different. Before this year, the D68 strand was almost unheard of. Between 1970 and 2005, only 26 cases of EV-D68 were reported in the U.S. Yet this year, in less than two months, the CDC has reported 780 cases in 46 states, and there are likely many more undiagnosed. Half the specimens tested by the CDC are EV-D68, but since August there have been thousands—perhaps even tens of thousands—of severe respiratory cases treated around the country that the CDC has not tested. D68 also seems to be associated with the paralysis occurring among many of the infected, but doctors are unsure how. In early 2014, a polio-like virus crippled 25 children in California. Enterovirus was suspected, and the symptoms were similar to those seen among children in Asia and Australia.

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FBI Quest for Smartphone Data Will Fuel Privacy Battle

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In the battle over how much access law enforcement should have to your smartphone, don’t expect the government to be outsmarted without a fight.

FBI Director James Comey said as much Thursday in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, suggesting the agency might ask congress to force companies to provide what amounts to a “back door” to law enforcement to obtain password-protected data on targeted personal mobile devices.

“We’re hoping to start a dialogue with congress” on updating laws that require tech companies to comply, he told the audience.

But he might find more than the usual resistance on Capitol Hill these days, and not just from known privacy critics and libertarians. A White House advisory panel convened in the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks about widespread government surveillance of Americans formally recommended that laws should “not in any way subvert, undermine, weaken or make vulnerable generally available commercial software.”

Moreover, typical law-and-order Republicans who might normally side with the FBI said they feel burned by government spying and want more assurances that Americans’ Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizures is protected.

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Houston to Pastors: Forget Your Sermons, Now We Want Your Speeches

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsFive Christian pastors will no longer have to turn their sermons over to attorneys for the city of Houston. Instead, they will be forced to turn over their speeches related to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO).

I don’t mean to point out the obvious here – but what do those attorneys think a sermon is? It’s a speech.

According to an amended motion filed Friday in Harris County, Texas court, the city’s attorneys will no longer demand sermons related to homosexuals, gender identity, or Mayor Annise Parker – Houston’s first openly lesbian mayor.

The amended subpoenas do require the pastors to turn over “all speeches or presentations related to HERO” – along with 17 different categories of information.

The Alliance Defending Freedom is a religious liberty law firm that is representing the pastors. Attorney Erik Stanley tells me the amended subpoenas don’t solve anything.

Read more from this story HERE.