101st Airborne Won’t Get Full Protective Hazmat Suits for Ebola Mission in West Africa

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Photo Credit: US Army By Jim Hoft.

The 101st Airborne is a U.S. Army modular light infantry division trained for air assault operations. The division was renowned for its role on D-Day. Major General David H. Petraeus (“Eagle 6″) led the Screaming Eagles to war in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The administration says they won’t need them.

Nashville Public Radio reported:

Troops from the 101st Airborne Division leading the military response to Ebola in West Africa will only need gloves and masks to protect themselves from the deadly virus, so said Gen. David Rodriguez at a Pentagon briefing Wednesday.

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Photo Credit: EPAMutant Ebola warning: Leading U.S. scientist warns deadly virus is already changing to become more contagious

By JENNIFER NEWTON.

The deadly Ebola virus could be mutating to become even more contagious, a leading U.S scientist has warned.

The disease has killed nearly 4,000 people, infecting in excess of 8,000 – the majority in the West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Communities lie in ruins, thousands of children have been orphaned, millions face starvation but the virus continues its unprecedented pace, invading and destroying vast swathes of these countries.

Meanwhile three nurses, two in the U.S. and one in Spain have caught the infection while treating Ebola patients, despite wearing protective suits.

Now U.S. scientist Peter Jahrling of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease believes the current Ebola outbreak may be caused by an infection that spreads more easily than it did before.

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Photo Credit: Allison Shelley / GettyIncompetence Meets Mendacity in Obama Administration’s Ebola Response

By Andrew C. McCarthy.

Ebola is causing such anxiety that even alarm over an outbreak of enterovirus D-68 — far more prevalent and linked to the deaths of at least four children — has been crowded out. Ditto news of the Islamic State’s rampage, a stock-price rollercoaster, and the impending midterm elections. Understandably, two concerns dominate the public discussion.

One is incompetence. Lulled into ever more dependence on government by the metastasis of regulation in what used to be the realm of private action, Americans are shaken by Washington’s inability to function. It is bungling elementary tasks. There is a sense of unraveling, a sense that officials are not merely out of their depth in addressing problems but incapable of spotting the problems in the first place — or, even worse, responsible for creating the very problems that then explode into crises.

Intimately related is the other concern: dishonesty. People expect politicians to spin and, at times, to out-and-out lie. I’ve been contending for a while now that our politics are no longer rational but tribal. Being right is secondary to being on the “right” side, as that side is perceived by the popular culture. That culture has largely tuned out the news and is swayed more by character assassination than by linear, fact-based argument. Official dishonesty is the natural result. When it is more important that “our side” wins than that the sensible thing be done, it is to be expected that the partisans, especially those in power, will say whatever they need to say to get through the news cycle. After all, fewer people than ever care about the news part of the news cycle; they care about the drama and their sympathies will be with their heroes — the fibs told to escape the latest jam are more admired for craftiness than condemned as breaches of trust.

Still, as we’ve previously observed, there is a breaking point. You can only abide politics as soap opera for so long because politics is actually about real life and real stakes. Reality cannot be scripted. Therefore, politics cannot forever be stage-managed as a “narrative” with “optics,” a daily show focused on how the lead character is affected by the latest crisis.

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Photo Credit: Sophia EvansEbola: Liberia deaths ‘far higher than reported’ as officials downplay epidemic

By Mark Townsend.

The true death toll from the Ebola epidemic is being masked by chaotic data collection and people’s reluctance to admit that their loved ones had the virus, according to one of west Africa’s most celebrated film-makers.

Sorious Samura, who has just returned from making a documentary on the crisis in Liberia, said it is very clear on the ground that the true number of dead is far higher than the official figures being reported by the World Health Organisation.

Liberia accounts for more than half of all the official Ebola deaths, with a total of 2,458. Overall, the number of dead across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea has exceeded 4,500.

Samura, a television journalist originally from Sierra Leone, said the Liberian authorities appeared to be deliberately downplaying the true number of cases, for fear of increasing alarm in the west African country.

“People are dying in greater numbers than we know, according to MSF [Médecins sans Frontières] and WHO officials. Certain departments are refusing to give them the figures – because the lower it is, the more peace of mind they can give people. The truth is that it is still not under control.”

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Benefits of Evil: Dozens of Ex-Nazis Reportedly Paid Millions in Social Security

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Photo Credit: APFormer Auschwitz guard Jakob Denzinger lived the American dream.

His plastics company in the Rust Belt town of Akron, Ohio, thrived. By the late 1980s, he had acquired the trappings of success: a Cadillac DeVille and a Lincoln Town Car, a lakefront home, investments in oil and real estate.

Then the Nazi hunters showed up.

In 1989, as the U.S. government prepared to strip him of his citizenship, Denzinger packed a pair of suitcases and fled to Germany. Denzinger later settled in this pleasant town on the Drava River, where he lives comfortably, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. He collects a Social Security payment of about $1,500 each month, nearly twice the take-home pay of an average Croatian worker.

Denzinger, 90, is among dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals and SS guards who collected millions of dollars in Social Security payments after being forced out of the United States, an Associated Press investigation found.

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CONFUSION: US Humanitarian Aid Going to ISIS

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Photo Credit: The Daily BeastWhile U.S. warplanes strike at the militants of the so-called Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq, truckloads of U.S. and Western aid has been flowing into territory controlled by the jihadists, assisting them to build their terror-inspiring “Caliphate.”

The aid—mainly food and medical equipment—is meant for Syrians displaced from their hometowns, and for hungry civilians. It is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, European donors, and the United Nations. Whether it continues is now the subject of anguished debate among officials in Washington and European. The fear is that stopping aid would hurt innocent civilians and would be used for propaganda purposes by the militants, who would likely blame the West for added hardship.

The Bible says if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him something to drink—doing so will “heap burning coals” of shame on his head. But there is no evidence that the militants of the Islamic State, widely known as ISIS or ISIL, feel any sense of disgrace or indignity (and certainly not gratitude) receiving charity from their foes.

Quite the reverse, the aid convoys have to pay off ISIS emirs (leaders) for the convoys to enter the eastern Syrian extremist strongholds of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, providing yet another income stream for ISIS militants, who are funding themselves from oil smuggling, extortion and the sale of whatever they can loot, including rare antiquities from museums and archaeological sites.

“The convoys have to be approved by ISIS and you have to pay them: the bribes are disguised and itemized as transportation costs,” says an aid coordinator who spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition he not be identified in this article. The kickbacks are either paid by foreign or local non-governmental organizations tasked with distributing the aid, or by the Turkish or Syrian transportation companies contracted to deliver it.

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Obama Administration Quietly Prepares 'Surge' of Millions of New Immigrant ID's

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Photo Credit: Breitbart Despite no official action from the president ahead of the election, the Obama administration has quietly begun preparing to issue millions of work authorization permits, suggesting the implementation of a large-scale executive amnesty may have already begun.

Unnoticed until now, a draft solicitation for bids issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Oct. 6 says potential vendors must be capable of handling a “surge” scenario of 9 million id cards in one year “to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements.”

The request for proposals says the agency will need a minimum of four million cards per year. In the “surge,” scenario in 2016, the agency would need an additional five million cards – more than double the baseline annual amount for a total of 9 million.

“The guaranteed minimum for each ordering period is 4,000,000 cards. The estimated maximum for the entire contract is 34,000,000 cards,” the document says.

The agency is buying the materials need to construct both Permanent Residency Cards (PRC), commonly known as green cards, as well as Employment Authorization Documentation (EAD) cards which have been used to implement President Obama’s “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) program. The RFP does not specify how many of each type of card would be issued.

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NY Gun Registry Deems Almost 35,000 People Too Mentally Ill To Carry a Gun

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Photo Credit: TownHallA new figure out of New York shows that the state has deemed 34,500 people too mentally ill to carry a firearm. While any responsible citizen would argue a dangerous and mentally unstable person should not be wielding a gun, some mental health advocates are arguing the number is far too high:

“That seems extraordinarily high to me,” said Sam Tsemberis, a former director of New York City’s involuntary hospitalization program for homeless and dangerous people, now the chief executive of Pathways to Housing, which provides housing to the mentally ill. “Assumed dangerousness is a far cry from actual dangerousness.”

The Office of Mental Health pointed out that 144,000 people were hospitalized in New York in 2012 for mental illness, trying to justify the gun registry’s seemingly high number. Yet, other health professionals argue the majority of those cases are not violent.

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Obama Makes Rare Campaign Trail Appearance, People Leave Early

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President Barack Obama made a rare appearance on the campaign trail on Sunday with a rally to support the Democratic candidate for governor in Maryland, but early departures of crowd members while he spoke underscored his continuing unpopularity.

With approval levels hovering around record lows, Obama has spent most of his campaign-related efforts this year raising money for struggling Democrats, who risk losing control of the U.S. Senate in the Nov. 4 midterm election.

Most candidates from his party have been wary of appearing with him during their election races because of his sagging popularity.

Not so Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown of Maryland, who is running for governor, and Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois, who is running for re-election. Obama plans to appear at an event for Quinn later in the evening.

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Greg Orman: Talking About Abortion "Prevents Us From Talking About Other Important Issues"

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsIn this week’s Kansas Senate debate between Greg Orman and incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts, the moderator asked the two about ultrasound laws. Independent candidate Greg Orman (there is no Democrat running in the race) discussed abortion by saying he doesn’t want to discuss it:

Orman: I think we spend a whole lot of time in this country talking about this issue and we have spent a lot of time over the last couple of decades talking about it. And I think it prevents us from talking about other important issues… I’m pro-choice.

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Common Core Horror Stories From Florida

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerEarlier this week, parents and teachers convened at Royal Palm Beach High School in South Florida to discuss the massive torment which children in taxpayer-funded schools have endured as a result of the implementation of the Common Core Standards Initiative and the standardized tests that go along with it.

The sad misery of kindergarten students subjected to computerized testing was among biggest complaints presented by irate parents and frustrated teachers, reports the Palm Beach Post.

“I watched a student suffer for over an hour,” explained one elementary school teacher. “They had no idea how to work the computer mouse.”

Not surprisingly, teachers discovered that five- and six-year-old students either have insufficient experience with computers or don’t possess the motor skills to use a mouse to take standardized tests. Over the course of one day, for example, five teachers worked with 10 students — out of 120 —to complete their tests, notes the Post.

“What’s ‘drag and drop’ to a child who’s not worked on a computer?” vented another exasperated teacher. The teacher also griped that the textbooks her school purchased aren’t even the rights ones for the standardized test her school uses, according to the local newspaper.

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Biden's Son Keeps Law License Despite Drug-Related Navy Reserve Discharge

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Photo Credit: APDespite being cashiered out of the Navy Reserve for testing positive for cocaine, Vice President Joe Biden’s son is still being allowed to practice law and won’t lose his Connecticut law license.

Late last week the Wall Street Journal reported that in February of this year Hunter Biden, 44, tested positive for cocaine during a drug test administered by the Navy and was immediately discharged from the Navy Reserve.

Days later the Connecticut Bar announced that it was not initiating any reviews of the younger Biden’s law license.

Lawyers in Connecticut face an automatic review of their licenses when they have been convicted of a crime, but Biden’s dismissal from the Navy for cocaine, the Bar Association said, did not rise to that threshold.

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Halloweed? Police Warn of Pot-Spiked Candy (+video)

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Photo Credit: REUTERSThe Facebook page of the Denver Police Department is warning that mass-produced candy can by sprayed with hash oil, and once the spray dries, there is no way to tell that the candy has been infused.

The station reported that the Denver PD Facebook page features Patrick Johnson, owner of marijuana shop Urban Dispensary. In the film, Johnson urges parents to inspect any candy their children bring home after trick-or-treating on Halloween to make sure it hasn’t been tampered with.

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